October 13, 2025 • 37 mins
This is a special episode we're really excited about. We put out the call for questions, and you delivered! We told you nothing was off the table—Freemasonry, Craftsmen Online, the podcast, or even personal questions for RW Michael Arce. Dive in, we’re answering what’s on your mind!
Show notes:
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/craftsmen-online-podcast--4822031/support.
Show notes:
- Join us on Patreon. Start your FREE seven day trial to the Craftsmen Online Podcast and get instant access to our bonus content! Whether it's a one time donation or you become a Patreon Subscriber, we appreciate your support.
- Visit the Craftsmen Online website to learn more about our next Reading Room event, New York Masonic History, and our Masonic Education blog!
- Follow the Craftsmen Online Podcast on Spotify.
- Subscribe to the Craftsmen Online Podcast on Apple Podcasts.
- Follow Craftsmen Online on YouTube, hit subscribe and get notified the next time we go LIVE with a podcast recording!
- Yes, we're on Tik Tok and Instagram.
- Get our latest announcements and important updates in your inbox with the Craftsmen Online Newsletter.
- Email the host, RW Michael Arce! Yes, we will read your email and may even reach out to be a guest on a future episode.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/craftsmen-online-podcast--4822031/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Commons. Opinions and views shared during this program are
of those individual Freemasons and do not reflect the official
position of a Grand Launch, Concordant Body, Appendant, Body, Masonic Authority,
or Craftsman Online dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey, welcome back to the Craftsman Online Podcast, the only
Masonic podcast endorsed by the Grand Lodge of your I'm
your host, right worsh for Brother Michael Arse, and you
joined us for our first listener Email, Questions and Answers episode.
But first, a couple of things. We are pushing to
try to get twenty new subscribers on our Patreon feed. Yes,
Craftsman Online Podcast is on Patreon. You can get the
(00:52):
link to start your free seven day trial and see
what the benefits are. Ad free episodes, you get them
a week early, plus access to our entire You're a
subscriber back catalog, all for just five dollars a month,
and I'm going to give you a whole week to
try it out. I want to thank one of our
og subscribers. He has been with us from literally the beginning,
Worshipful Brother Jason Lee, one of our first international podcast listeners, Yes,
(01:17):
listening every week from Germany. We appreciate your support as
we push our mission to connecting men who have an
interest in freemasonry with our ancient and gentle craft. Also
a reminder save the date. Our third annual Black Friday
Holiday shopping episode that's sponsored by Brooksmasons dot Com again
returns on Monday, November twenty fourth, or November seventeenth if
(01:41):
you're a Patreon listener. Brother Matthew Brockbank will be joining
me back here in our virtual studio, continuing our holiday
tradition of reviewing hard to find and yes, those very
out of the box gift ideas for your favorite Freemason
this holiday season. Thanks again to our friends at Brooksmasons
dot com for sponsoring the third annual Black Friday Holiday
Shopping episode coming up next month Monday eleven, twenty four. Okay,
(02:05):
let's dive into this. I have been looking forward to
this episode. It's special because it's the first time we
put a call out for questions to our audience, like, hey,
you got a question about anything, Nothing was off the table.
We could talk about freemasonry, we could talk about craftsman
online this podcast, or you could even ask a personal
question to me. Right, Worshipful Brother Michael arsa and guess what, guys,
(02:26):
you did. So we're going to dive in and start
answering what's on your mind? And question number one. This
is kind of an easy one because we literally get
this question at least five hundred times a week, and
I say this was some jokingness in my voice. A
lot of the time. This comes through our website, Craftsman
online dot com, which you haven't visited yet. You should
(02:47):
go there. We got an amazing blog, so many great videos,
Masonic education, cool stuff that's going on. We also get
questions here through our podcast email, which is podcast at
Craftsman online dot com. And while most of the people
who write and ask a version of this question are
not hailing here in North America, it is a very
(03:07):
valid one to ask and we've talked about it a
lot on the show. So simply the question is how
do I join Freemasonry? That is an interesting one. I
can tell you how I did it as a man
living in North America. I was living in upstate New
York at the time, and there's basically two ways. One
is you are going to be going by a lodge
building that you know to be one in your community.
(03:28):
I've ever passed it every single day on your way
to work. You know where it is on that side
of town for blood drives or other community events that
may have taken place there. So yes, if you've seen
that familiar square compass with the letter G in the center,
that is a Masonic temple and that's where Masons meet,
usually either outside posted somewhere in a sign, or just
(03:51):
inside in the vestibule or near the front door. There
will be a menu that lets you know when that
lodge meets and you can go and join them for dinner.
There's probably also going to be some contact information if
you're interested in visiting. I wouldn't just suggest showing up,
but we're typically used to accepting visitors and welcoming them,
(04:12):
so that's usually step one is physically going to a
Masonic lodge. You don't have to know anybody to become
a Freemason. It doesn't matter if your great great great
great great grandfather was a Mason, or you are, literally,
like me, the first man in your family who's ever
walked into a Masonic lodge. We would be happy to
have you join us for a dinner, to answer some
(04:34):
questions and chill you around the lodge and let you
learn what you need to know. The second way to
join a Masonic lodge in North America, I know this
to be true at the US and throughout most of
Canada is you can open up your phone and do
this thing called Google and search a Masonic lodge near me. Now,
I'm gonna throw a lot of caveats in here, because
(04:56):
I don't want to lead you down a crazy rabbit
hole path. And there are something about this search that
are concerning, and I want you to know this. If
you have an interest in Freemasonry, then I'm assuming you
don't know very much about what we do, which is okay.
And by what I mean what we do is how
Masonic lodges and Freemasonry in general, at least here in
(05:16):
North America is structured. Let's have a quick talk about
like what regular means, because you're gonna go onto your
phone and you're gonna hit this search and if you
type in regular Masonic lodges near me, I don't know
what is going to pop up on your phone. But
here's what regular means to us. It means that they
fall under some jurisdictional authority. That means that that Grand
Lodge of the State of New York is in amity
(05:40):
with a Grand Lodge of New Jersey and Connecticut and
California and all of the other Grand Lodges around the world.
What basically it means is that they follow the same
three degree system and traditions that are well established across
known and accepted Grand Lodges all around the globe. That's
what a regular lodges. An irregular lodge very close in
(06:04):
some aspects to a Grand irregular lodge, but for some
reason they're not recognized as a regular lodge, and some
of it can get extremely political. So I'm just going
to kind of avoid that conversation. Irregular very close doesn't
mean it's bad. It just means you may run into
some problems just wanting to visit other lodges and sitting
(06:25):
with other Masonic brothers. The third category, these are the
clandestine lodges. And this is the thing that I'm really
really concerned about, because if you're listening to this podcast
and you're emailing me and saying, hey, how do I
become a Freemason, and we've gotten to this point in
the conversation, you haven't already done your homework. You haven't
found the lodge near you, and you're not looking on
(06:47):
your phone to find a lodge. In my opinion, you
are primed to get scooped up by one of these
clandestine lodges, which are lodges who are trying to pretend
to be Freemasons and are not anything Masonic because the
experience they have is definitely a knockoff. So your regular
lodge is basically that brand product that everybody knows it's
a household name. An irregular lodge is very close. It's
(07:10):
like that second tier that's almost there, but it's not there.
The clandestine lodge are the lodges that some guy spreads
out of tarp and tries to sell you a knockoff
product on the street, and you know that it's not
the real thing, because why would a three hundred dollars
handbag that your wife want be able to be walked
off with for like thirty five bucks. That's the best
way that I can answer this very simple question, and
(07:30):
trust me, if it's a good fit for you, you'll know,
all right. So let's bump onto question number two. And
I love this one, and I don't know. Thank Ava
Johnston in Peoria Illinois for sending it in. She writes,
I am not a Mason. What is the single most
important thing you think I should know about Freemasonry? We
always talk about the idea of making good men better,
(07:52):
and like, what does that mean? So, if you've interacted
with a Mason and he's used that term around you
personal development leadership skills, I think you'd want to know
that they have a very inquisitive intellect, their truth seekers.
They're independent thinkers. They like the company of other like
minded people that they can feel comfortable talking with. But
(08:12):
they also, in the same breath, like to be around
others that offer a different viewpoint or take on things,
and they don't feel challenged by that. I think that's
the most important thing that you should know about Freemasonry.
You're going to look things up on the Internet and
you're going to see all the wonderful American revolutionary ties
that we have, some of the great presidents who are Freemasons,
some of the most wonderful and amazing men throughout history
(08:35):
who have been Freemasons, the wonderful charity work that we do,
how involved we are in our communities. These are all very, very,
very good things. But I think for your situation is like,
how is it going to impact you personally? Is if
you do interact with someone who says, yeah, I'm a Freemason,
whether it's some guy that you work with, a dude
that you met on the internet that you're interested in dating,
(08:56):
or maybe you got a new family member this year,
what do you need to know about Freemason? The good people.
They're open hearted, they're kind, They're the kind of people
that if they see a problem, they're one of the
first to stand up and want to go do something
about it, and in a good way. When I put
the call out in I think it was August, we
started asking or soliciting it for emails for this listener episode.
(09:18):
I got a huge one from brother Jonathan Winters in
Upstate New York, and he had quite a few questions
for this episode, so I wanted to hit them all
up here in order. His first question is a really
good one. He asks, where can I go to get
a copy of everything that was said and performed during
the entered apprentice degree. I want to study it more deeply.
I have a disability. I would like something that I
(09:40):
can read so that I can digest the lectures even
more over time, do you have any suggestions? What about
the Livingston Library Reading Course. I love when sometimes people
answer their own questions. The Livingston Library is a fantastic
resource for any brother in the Grand Lodge of New
York jurisdiction. Yes, I would highly recommend that. Let me
just have quick sidebar and then I'm gonna get to
(10:01):
like where you can learn about everything that was said
to you during your interad Apprentice degree or fellow craft
or even Master Mason degree. Uh livesein library is fantastic.
My advice is you're gonna see that the reading courses
that they have for the first three degrees of Freemasonry,
there will be quite an extensive waiting list to get
some of those books, which is okay and which is cool.
(10:22):
You can't actually start ordering them until you become a Mason.
So I would say the night that you get that
interd Apprentice degree, the next morning, go on to the
Grand Lodge of New York website which is Nymasons dot org,
click on the Livingstone Library, get over to the Livingston
Library Reading Course and definitely get in line for the
(10:43):
EA degree course, and then go ahead and put yourself
down for the fellow Craft and Master Mason. In my experience,
I didn't get the EA resources. And again, this was
like ten years ago, so I know that there's a
more demand for online learning now. But I was getting
the books for the EA degree until I was getting
ready to wrap up my Master Mason's degree, which is
(11:05):
fine because it was really good to kind of reinforce
all the things that I thought I learned in that
first degree. So yes, Livingston Library is a fantastic resource
for New York Masons. What about for everybody else? Well,
I would say in most jurisdictions, the copy of everything
that was said and performed during your entered apprentice degree.
(11:27):
It's going to have different terms. Some jurisdictions call it
a monitor, and I know in New York we call
it the standard work and lecture. You might have heard
it referred to as a ritual book. In most cases,
they're tiny little books that look like really really old
school bibles. You don't typically get those until you're a
master Mason. It's one of the Hey, you've now received
(11:49):
all of the secrets of freemasonry, and here's the little
book that's going to be in a ciphered presentation, so
that you could read it. Hold on, Brothers from the
Grand Lodge of Illinois. I know that most of yours
is an open text. That is the best example of
where you're going to find all of the ritual, word
for word that was said and performed during your degrees.
Specifically in the New York jurisdiction. For our EA degrees,
(12:13):
we have the Catechism, and I know that you're going
to get that little blue book which is going to
start your journey. Not everything that was said to you
is going to be in your catechism as you studied,
but it will account for the experience, let's say, and
some of the steps that you went through during your
degree work. The other thing I would say is whether
(12:35):
you have a disability. Some of us just see things
better by witnessing in person. And that's the other way
that you can learn so much about your degrees is
going and seeing other degrees after you get yours. That's
something that your launch brothers should have offered to you
and maybe even said, hey, let's go see this. Now
that you're an entered apprentice, we can take you to
(12:55):
this EA degree and you can see that. Of course,
you can only see the degrees that you have actually
gone through yourself, So don't expect to be able to
go see a fellowcraft or a Master Mason's degree if
you are an EA. So Jonathan's next question is a
good one too. He enjoys the Catechism and has a
very cool heritage, but he didn't join freemasonry to do
(13:17):
ritual for the sake of doing ritual, Amn Bro, I
have often said the same thing. I joined because I
wanted to learn how to be a better man and
how to better inculcate the virtues of the classical world.
How do you suggest learning that part of freemasonry? I
will say this In the early beginning for me as
(13:37):
an entered apprentice, I famously told my Masonic mentor that
I understand this Catechism is what I have to learn
to show that I can memorize something so that I
can get the next degree. That's how I viewed it initially.
I know it's so much more than that. During that
Catechism study is really where the real Masonic education takes place.
(13:57):
Or if you have a question about something that happens
during the degree work, it gets answered. It should be
kind of a one on one or if you're going
through the degree with a class or that means more
than one other brother that's a part of this degree.
They try to keep the group together, so to speak.
I always feel for guys that are going through degrees
by themselves because they really can only have that conversation
(14:19):
with their Masonic mentor. But if you're in a group
with at least one sometimes I've seen ten twelve other
guys all going through the degree together. Man, that's amazing
because you get so many different perspectives on things. That's
your in person level. You. Yes, can read books on
anything you want about freemason, be it a EA or
(14:40):
just somebody sitting on the sidelines. It really doesn't matter
if it's out in print. It is fair game. Even
podcasts like the Craftsman Online podcast, we don't give away
any of the secrets, but we do talk about a
lot of some of the points of the degrees and
kind of let you know, like where to look. I
think that's what you're going to experience, is that there's
really no one place to go to definitively. Some are
(15:02):
going to point to Albert Pike's books or Macky's some
of the classics, and yeah, you can try to take
on that. But if you're trying to learn more about
the craft outside of going through the ritual and study
of the studying the ritual, one of the books that honestly,
I was really happy to pick up as a fellow
(15:22):
craft was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I instantly started making
connections with some of the Masonic lessons that we learned
in the first two degrees of Freemasonry compared to what
he was writing about in his personal diary centuries ago.
All right, last question from Brother Winters. Do I have
to wait, and this is a really really good one,
(15:44):
Do I have to wait until I become a Master
Mason to get involved in charitable activities? The answer is hell, no,
you don't even have to be a Mason to get
involved with most of our charitable activities. We try to
get into the community as much as possible, So no,
don't have to be a Master Mason to get involved
in the activities. I'm sure your lodge is going to
(16:05):
have programs and initiatives and things that are important to them,
causes that they reach out to. You can always give
money for that, You can always volunteer for things in
your communities. I guess the question is do I have
to wait to become a master Mason to take leadership
roles in these committees or in some of the lodge
sponsored events, And that yes, you may have to wait
(16:25):
for that moment, depending on how your lodge leadership tree
is structured. But as far as getting involved, no, you
don't even have to be a Freemason to roll up
your sleeves and jump into it, and we welcome you
to bring friends and family that can do it. All right,
(17:05):
we are not even halfway through this special Listener Questions
Email episode. We're onto question number five from brother Darren Keeler,
who's a newly raised Master Mason who writes hello from
a mile high in Colorado. What are the best ways
to get involved in my lodge beyond just attending meetings? Oh, Darren,
that is such a good question, my guy. There's a
(17:27):
lot of things. Look, I'm not going to say don't
attend meetings. I think attending the meetings are honestly the
best way that you can stay engaged with your lodge.
They need you to be there. You know, as a
master Mason, something that you say in the Fellowcraft degree
that basically says, I'll be here and I'll be attending
the meetings, Like there's a reason why we put that
in there. But how do you get in launch involved
(17:48):
with your lodge beyond the meetings? It kind of piggybacks
off of the question the Brother Winters has is that
your lodge is going to have a lot of activities
or events that are taking place throughout the calendar year.
There are going to be leadership roles that are open
and like serving on a committee or taking the driving
role in planning some of these events, and they could
always use help for that. But then there's also the
(18:09):
support roles, which is, hey, I'll be the guy that
shows up a little early to clean up or stays
a little late to clean up again. You could also be,
like your lodge an ambassador in the community. And I
think we all serve our community and in this role
in some function and that we're a master Mason. We're
out in public. We see something that's going on, whether
it's a program at work, it's a sporting event with
(18:31):
your kids, team, your family, your church, whatever, you see
a need in that you can help better the community
and can bring that to the lodge and say, hey, guys,
we need to do this and we need to do that.
That's a way to get involved with your lodge beyond
just attending meetings. There's also going to be tons of
opportunity when it comes to helping the next brother. By that,
(18:51):
I mean being a part of your lodge's ritual or
degree team. There's never a shortage of conductors need to
be had for these degrees, and also probably many open
parts where there's memorization. Hey, you don't want to learn ritual,
you don't want to memorize things. I totally get it.
The other way that you can be involved beyond just
attending the meeting is attending the degrees and honestly visiting
(19:14):
other lodges and being a part of those lodges. Events
would be huge. So I'm talking about festive boards, special dinners,
or outing events that they have for couples or partner nights.
I know my lodge here in DC this year we
had a very successful cultural night that at the end
of the RSVP period we started seeing a lot of
other brothers jumping in from visiting lodges, which was amazing
(19:38):
because it just shows that Freemasonry is that it doesn't
matter what team. When I mean team, I mean what
lodge you are a member of. You're part of a
much larger one and being able to support each other
in our events, that's super key. It's great for you
and it's also good for your lodge. Okay, we're on
to question number six and this is a common one
that we got, so I'm kind of summarizing this and
(20:00):
it's about ritual It's a question, are there any tips?
Do I have any tips for learning and memorizing ritual work?
And this is going to be my controversial hot take
here on the Crafts Went Online podcast, So a reminder,
we do run that disclaimer that I think most people
skip over in the beginning of the episode, where these
views are mine and mine alone and not a member
of any grand lodge or any grand jurisdiction. So take
(20:22):
that as you may. When it comes to memorizing and
learning the ritual work, this was the biggest struggle for me,
not because I have a learning disability or just don't
have an aptitude to want to do it. It's just
that I was busy, man. I was going through divorce,
I was going back to school, working on my undergrad degrees.
I had started a new job. There were a lot
of changes that were taking place when I initially joined
(20:44):
a lodge and having to memorize I think it was
thirty minutes of back and forth questions and answers and
being able to do it at almost one hundred percent proficiency.
That was quite a challenge. So how did I learn this? Well?
Number one? And again this sounds so simple, but these
(21:07):
tiny little books and literally like this, if you could
hear this sound, that's how many pages were in my
catechism book on the first and second degree. I wore
that thing to work literally every day. And I understand
some people don't have a desk job, and even fewer
of us have like offices that we can shut the door.
But I was always carrying my ritual book with me.
(21:28):
I was highlighting the parts that I had trouble with.
I was circling the letters around the words so that
I knew that this was supposed to be a the,
and that was a that, and this is a this.
I literally any free moment, and I'm not trying to
be gross here, but during comfort breaks, that's what I
was on instead of looking at my social media feeds.
If I was at lunch I had my nose and
(21:49):
that little tiny book. I remember one time somebody coming
up to me and thinking it was one of those
little pamphlet books that you know, you used to get
way back in the day from church, and I was like, no, no,
it's not like that. It's just something that i'm studying
for this other group that I'm in. And they're like, oh, okay,
so that would be my ticket? Is like literally, just
try to carry around your Catechism with you everywhere you can. Okay,
(22:11):
what if that's not an option. Here's the other thing
that I did. I think I've shared this openly with
you guys before, but I run every other day now
and now I'm doing workouts here at home, so I
am out working out at least thirty to forty minutes
every day of the week. When I was going through
(22:33):
my degree work. And this is my controversial hot take, Yes,
I admit to it. On my iPhone, I opened up
my voice memos and I recorded myself reading the Catechism.
Now here's why. Because someone's gonna say, oh, but don't
we say as part of our obligation that we won't
do Yeah, okay, we do say that. But I looked
(22:56):
at it this way. My voice memo was locked behind
at the time, my fingerprint to open up my phone.
Nobody had my code to get into my phone, and
still nobody does. I felt that it was pretty secure.
It was also buried in my voice memos app. So
if you really, really, really really wanted to learn all
(23:19):
of the secrets of Ramasonry, which you're not going to
get in our little catechism books. And then when I
was done with the degrees, I deleted the voice memo
and it's gone. I have since talked to brothers who
do have dyslexia or other severe learning conditions, and this
tip to them has been a lifesaver and kept them
(23:40):
engaged with the craft. Again, just be really careful with it.
I would put my earphones in and I knew, okay,
I'm going to be doing a thirty minute floor exercise
workout at five am in the chim by myself. I'm
listening to myself do my catechism. I'm going to go
out for a quick little out and back two and
a half mile run. I got forty minutes. I'm listening
to myself doing my catechism on my headphones. The one
(24:04):
thing that I would advise though, my brother, is if
you are going to do that, I'm going to record
myself doing the catechism to listen to it route. Just
make sure that all the words are correct. This isn't
a way to get around that initial that you gotta
work with your Masonic mentor. You gotta have everything down,
because there's nothing worse than I suffer from. It were
a couple key words I did not know them and
(24:26):
recorded myself saying them wrong. So every time when I
go to do that part of the ritual, I have
to pause because my brain knows to overwrite what it
was once told. The other key thing is I would
say about recording yourself and then hearing it back on playback.
I think it reduces that a brain fart problem that
a lot of us suffer from, because as you're going
through the Catechism, you're actually hearing the voice inside of
(24:49):
your head give you the answers instead of maybe a
mentor or a classmate or another brother who had worked
with you on your ritual. All right, I kind of
joked about this earlier. Masonic Books and Libraries. Worshipful Brother
Keith Riikel asked, what's a book that every mastermation should
have in his library. Ooh, this is a good one.
(25:11):
And with the number of writers and friends who are
writers of the podcast, I gotta be careful how I
answer it. So I answered this question has been We'll
be and is never going to change, contemplating craft Freemasonry,
working the Way of the Craftsman. Yeah, it's a super
long title. It's a book written by W Birk McNulty.
(25:33):
And here's why I love this book. I got this
years ago, and I mean like, oh jeez, probably like
eight years ago is before COVID definitely where brothers from
my lodge. We were getting ready to kind of break
for the summertime in New York. We don't meet in
the summer, so our idea was to form a little
book club. And the idea was like, hey, we got
three months here in the summertime. There were three of
(25:54):
us in this group. Each one of us is going
to call down a book and we'll meet once a month.
Usually it was at my townhouse and I was like,
cook everybody dinner, and then whoever had the selection for
that month. The book had to be available on Amazon,
which this is, and it had to be less than
twenty dollars, which it also is, and you'd get four
weeks to kind of read it. The thing was bring
(26:14):
three things you read that you really were interested in,
three that you had a question about, and then the
last thing was just like anything cool you wanted to
share with the group and talk about. Like the most
engaging three hours that I ever spent with guys. I
really enjoyed that. Here's what I like about the book.
It's basically set up as a chapter book with questions
at the end, So whether you're working on yourself for
(26:37):
like personal development or just looking for Masonic education, it
has like probing questions at the end of the book
that you can sit there and think about. The second
thing is this is great for just short talk bulletin
replacement material in lodges. If there's a worshipful master who
has open dates on his trustle board and you're looking
for some discussion topics in your lodge, Contemplating craft Freemason
(27:00):
Working the Way of the Craftsman by Kirk McNulty is
your solution. And because I love you so much, I'll
make sure to drop the link to purchase this on
Amazon in the notes for this episode, all Right, brother,
(27:38):
Christopher Schaubach in Minnesota wants to know what is your
favorite degree, either York or Scottish Write or Blue Lodge
And why good question, And you've kind of exposed the
underbelly here. I am a York right Mason. However I
dimitted from that, and I was a member of the
Scottish Write, but I never took my thirty second degree.
(27:58):
I was a COVID Scottish Ripe Mason and eventually also
dimitted from that. So at this point right now, I
consider myself a very Blue Lodge centric mason. So throughout
all of the degrees, my favorite degree in freemasonry and
that's the first degree. And here's why, Like I could
tell you a third degree is amazing. I think the
Herramic legend, when performed correctly, can be the best piece
(28:22):
of dramatic theater and entertainment than any brother will ever experience.
And it really does on deeper levels and so much
allegory as in that like really opened your mind to
like what's possible in freemasonry. Love the second degree too.
You want to talk about personal development tools, A lot
of history is in there. The brothers that can do
I've heard it called the winding staircase or that middle
(28:44):
chamber lecture. Man, that is chef's kiss. When it comes
to ritual. Why the first degree then, well, it's just
the experience of it because from you know, sounded like
eminem with you know, sweaty palms and mom spaghetti and
your belly just being I'm super nervous not knowing what
you're getting into the first time going into the preparation room. Like,
(29:05):
let's be honest, like you don't forget your first experience.
It shapes so much perspective about what everything else is
going to be. It sets that level, that expectation that
bar you never get it back. Either. The best way
that I get glimpses into what my first degree experience
was was going and being a part of other brothers degrees,
(29:27):
which I also highly recommend doing. So, yeah, first degree,
there's so much esotericism it's baked into it as well.
People write that off. Yeah, the historical lecture where you
get into how lodges are situated, what the furniture situation
might be here, stories about Moses and the parting of
the Red Sea. And then my favorite piece of Masonic
(29:49):
ritual is buried in there the point within a circle,
like it's just so deep and so wide and so
much knowledge is in there that yeah, first degree hands
down every day and twice on Sunday. All Right, we're
bumping along here, got a couple more to go. We're
up to question number ten, and I want to thank
right worship for Brother Andrew Barnes for sending this question
in how do you reconcile the rule about not discussing
(30:10):
politics or religion in lodge when they are such important
topics in the world. Ooh, that is a really good one.
And ironically I don't necessarily tease upcoming episodes too much,
but next week we are going to have Brother Matthew
Brockbank on The Craftsman Online podcast for an episode on
freemasons in politics. Matthew's actually running for an office in
(30:35):
his community, North Greenbush, New York, and I can't wait
to have that discussion with him on that. But how
do I feel about the rule about not discussing politics
or religion and Lodge. I've explained it this way before.
We certainly do, but not in this sense like oh, oh,
don't go clutch in your pearls. Not in the sense
that you think that we do. For example, I live
(30:57):
just outside the nation's capital my lodge right now in Washington,
d C. Don't need to get to talking about the
epicenter of American politics here too much. But when I'm
talking with brothers before lodge at the bar in our building,
we definitely do talk about politics. Do we talk about
(31:18):
one person's viewpoint or one side being right versus the other? No.
Do we have discussions where men are contributing and sharing
ideas or opinions that might make you that could be
considered challenging or better yet, their questions even make you
raise questions about why certain things are sure? Does it
(31:40):
ever get contentious?
Speaker 1 (31:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Have I ever seen guys get hauled out of the
lodge room because it was about to come down to
you know, throwing fists. Now doesn't happen here. I have
heard of that in other jurisdictions. And I'm not going
to get into the political fight about who was it
and what were they saying and what was going on.
I think you all know, like we live in a
very divided country, and the whole idea about Freemasonry as
(32:03):
we're supposed to be able to come together around issues
and you know show the world how brothers act, but
I think before we can do that, we do need
to have a discussion. And that's what's cool about freemasonry,
with being like minded and being around the right group
of guys. Obviously, I'm not going to walk into a
lodge that I don't know anybody in its Hey, guys,
(32:24):
what do you think about fill in the blank? It's
not gonna happen. I got to you got to take
the temperature of the room when these conversations start happening.
And if you know that anything you add is just
gonna throw gas on the fire, well be responsible. And
I think there's a lot of just personal conduct and
like you know, how to be a good person that
you learn in freemasonry, to where you can tell that
anything you say or add to the conversation isn't really
(32:47):
going to take it to the level that we need
it to be at. It's it's going to be more
distracting and detracting than bringing people together. So that's how
I feel about the political discussion. I've never heard a
political discussion in a lodge meeting ever. And I can
say now again I've had other brothers that have pointed
(33:07):
out like, well, wouldn't you consider saying the pledge of
allegiance a political act? And I guess it could be
viewed as that. If you've ever traveled to any other
jurisdiction outside of the US, they don't say the pledge
of allegiance to their flag before they start their meetings.
But that's something that we do in America. Let's talk
about religion. We discuss religion a lot in our lodge,
(33:28):
as weird as it may sound, as even a big
part of our ritual. Now, I know what you're saying,
don't clutch your pearls on that one either. I mean,
if we're actually using Biblical passages and Biblical stories as
an allegory to share or communicate a Masonic lesson, that's religion.
I think the key thing is is the discussing of
the religion. And I've seen programs where we have open
(33:49):
books talking about the Quran, talking about the Baca Ghita,
talking about ancient traditions and civilizations and what people believed
and why they thought this way, Greek God, Roman God,
star signs, all of this stuff. I've heard all of
these discussions in the lodge. The thing that makes it different, though,
is there's no motorium on like. You can't discuss that
(34:13):
in a lodge. I think the thing is is that
once you start talking about one being better than the
other or ruling all others, that's where the gavel has
to drop, in my opinion from the Master, and I've
never ever seen that or been exposed to that in
a Masonic lodge. So we definitely have discussions on religion
(34:34):
traditions in the historical context, but we're not sitting here
telling you why one is better than the other and
why you have to be a part of it. I
just want to say this before we get to the
final question here. If you've listened this long, if you've
shared an email question, if you one of our Day
one listeners on the Craftsman Online podcast, thank you so much.
I've enjoyed this episode. I think we should do this
(34:54):
every year and maybe a couple times during the year.
So definitely something for me to think about as we
get ready for a Sea six next January. Our last
question comes from Worshipful Brother Justin Robinson, and we save
the hardest one for last. He asks, who is a
dream guest you'd love to have on your show? Well,
(35:16):
I don't have just one answer to that. I would
like to talk to the following brothers, Brad Paisley, Representative
Jim Clydburn from the South Carolina sixth Congressional District, or
Shaquille O'Neill. And here's why I would love to talk
to either leaders in entertainment, leaders as sports figures and
have been leaders on teams, or leaders in our political system.
(35:39):
I'd love to learn how the same lessons that I
embrace as a freemason and just this regular guy in
the community, how that impacts them and how they are
lifting and using freemasonry and the principles that we learn
to become a better person and make this a better
place honestly. And you might think like, oh, well, a
guy that's you know, country singer that's on the stage,
(36:01):
or a dude to condunk basketball and take down the
whole backboard, or a member of Congress, like I would
love to just hear how freemasonry is a part of
every day life for them. As far as the guests
on the show, let me just go out with saying this,
I thank every single one of them, even our first
guests from the very very very very first episode of
(36:24):
the Craftsman Online podcast when I was still recording this
program on an old gaming mic that my son had
on the ironing board in the guest bedroom of our house,
to where we are now with the rig that I
get questioned with my wife when you're buying another microphone.
Of course, I want to make sure the show sounds good,
(36:45):
but all of the guests that we've had, seriously, this
would have been the most saddest and boring podcast and
I probably would have quit after six months if it
was just me talking all the time. So thank to
all of them. You have been a dream for me
and a reality that I enjoy all right. Normally at
this point I thank my guest who is on this week,
(37:06):
and that would just sound super gracious if I think myself.
So we're going to skip over that one. But I
want to thank you our listener, and especially those who
support us on Patreon for continuing to do that. If
you've enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow us on
Spotify or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. And seriously, the best
thing that you can do to share the message of
Craftsman Online is tell another brother about it. I'm right
(37:29):
worship for brother Michael Arsa until we get some time
together next week, Let peace and harmony prevail.
The Commons. Opinions and views shared during this program are
of those individual Freemasons and do not reflect the official
position of a Grand Launch, Concordant Body, Appendant, Body, Masonic Authority,
or Craftsman Online dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hey, welcome back to the Craftsman Online Podcast, the only
Masonic podcast endorsed by the Grand Lodge of your I'm
your host, right worsh for Brother Michael Arse, and you
joined us for our first listener Email, Questions and Answers episode.
But first, a couple of things. We are pushing to
try to get twenty new subscribers on our Patreon feed. Yes,
Craftsman Online Podcast is on Patreon. You can get the
(00:52):
link to start your free seven day trial and see
what the benefits are. Ad free episodes, you get them
a week early, plus access to our entire You're a
subscriber back catalog, all for just five dollars a month,
and I'm going to give you a whole week to
try it out. I want to thank one of our
og subscribers. He has been with us from literally the beginning,
Worshipful Brother Jason Lee, one of our first international podcast listeners, Yes,
(01:17):
listening every week from Germany. We appreciate your support as
we push our mission to connecting men who have an
interest in freemasonry with our ancient and gentle craft. Also
a reminder save the date. Our third annual Black Friday
Holiday shopping episode that's sponsored by Brooksmasons dot Com again
returns on Monday, November twenty fourth, or November seventeenth if
(01:41):
you're a Patreon listener. Brother Matthew Brockbank will be joining
me back here in our virtual studio, continuing our holiday
tradition of reviewing hard to find and yes, those very
out of the box gift ideas for your favorite Freemason
this holiday season. Thanks again to our friends at Brooksmasons
dot com for sponsoring the third annual Black Friday Holiday
Shopping episode coming up next month Monday eleven, twenty four. Okay,
(02:05):
let's dive into this. I have been looking forward to
this episode. It's special because it's the first time we
put a call out for questions to our audience, like, hey,
you got a question about anything, Nothing was off the table.
We could talk about freemasonry, we could talk about craftsman
online this podcast, or you could even ask a personal
question to me. Right, Worshipful Brother Michael arsa and guess what, guys,
(02:26):
you did. So we're going to dive in and start
answering what's on your mind? And question number one. This
is kind of an easy one because we literally get
this question at least five hundred times a week, and
I say this was some jokingness in my voice. A
lot of the time. This comes through our website, Craftsman
online dot com, which you haven't visited yet. You should
(02:47):
go there. We got an amazing blog, so many great videos,
Masonic education, cool stuff that's going on. We also get
questions here through our podcast email, which is podcast at
Craftsman online dot com. And while most of the people
who write and ask a version of this question are
not hailing here in North America, it is a very
(03:07):
valid one to ask and we've talked about it a
lot on the show. So simply the question is how
do I join Freemasonry? That is an interesting one. I
can tell you how I did it as a man
living in North America. I was living in upstate New
York at the time, and there's basically two ways. One
is you are going to be going by a lodge
building that you know to be one in your community.
(03:28):
I've ever passed it every single day on your way
to work. You know where it is on that side
of town for blood drives or other community events that
may have taken place there. So yes, if you've seen
that familiar square compass with the letter G in the center,
that is a Masonic temple and that's where Masons meet,
usually either outside posted somewhere in a sign, or just
(03:51):
inside in the vestibule or near the front door. There
will be a menu that lets you know when that
lodge meets and you can go and join them for dinner.
There's probably also going to be some contact information if
you're interested in visiting. I wouldn't just suggest showing up,
but we're typically used to accepting visitors and welcoming them,
(04:12):
so that's usually step one is physically going to a
Masonic lodge. You don't have to know anybody to become
a Freemason. It doesn't matter if your great great great
great great grandfather was a Mason, or you are, literally,
like me, the first man in your family who's ever
walked into a Masonic lodge. We would be happy to
have you join us for a dinner, to answer some
(04:34):
questions and chill you around the lodge and let you
learn what you need to know. The second way to
join a Masonic lodge in North America, I know this
to be true at the US and throughout most of
Canada is you can open up your phone and do
this thing called Google and search a Masonic lodge near me. Now,
I'm gonna throw a lot of caveats in here, because
(04:56):
I don't want to lead you down a crazy rabbit
hole path. And there are something about this search that
are concerning, and I want you to know this. If
you have an interest in Freemasonry, then I'm assuming you
don't know very much about what we do, which is okay.
And by what I mean what we do is how
Masonic lodges and Freemasonry in general, at least here in
(05:16):
North America is structured. Let's have a quick talk about
like what regular means, because you're gonna go onto your
phone and you're gonna hit this search and if you
type in regular Masonic lodges near me, I don't know
what is going to pop up on your phone. But
here's what regular means to us. It means that they
fall under some jurisdictional authority. That means that that Grand
Lodge of the State of New York is in amity
(05:40):
with a Grand Lodge of New Jersey and Connecticut and
California and all of the other Grand Lodges around the world.
What basically it means is that they follow the same
three degree system and traditions that are well established across
known and accepted Grand Lodges all around the globe. That's
what a regular lodges. An irregular lodge very close in
(06:04):
some aspects to a Grand irregular lodge, but for some
reason they're not recognized as a regular lodge, and some
of it can get extremely political. So I'm just going
to kind of avoid that conversation. Irregular very close doesn't
mean it's bad. It just means you may run into
some problems just wanting to visit other lodges and sitting
(06:25):
with other Masonic brothers. The third category, these are the
clandestine lodges. And this is the thing that I'm really
really concerned about, because if you're listening to this podcast
and you're emailing me and saying, hey, how do I
become a Freemason, and we've gotten to this point in
the conversation, you haven't already done your homework. You haven't
found the lodge near you, and you're not looking on
(06:47):
your phone to find a lodge. In my opinion, you
are primed to get scooped up by one of these
clandestine lodges, which are lodges who are trying to pretend
to be Freemasons and are not anything Masonic because the
experience they have is definitely a knockoff. So your regular
lodge is basically that brand product that everybody knows it's
a household name. An irregular lodge is very close. It's
(07:10):
like that second tier that's almost there, but it's not there.
The clandestine lodge are the lodges that some guy spreads
out of tarp and tries to sell you a knockoff
product on the street, and you know that it's not
the real thing, because why would a three hundred dollars
handbag that your wife want be able to be walked
off with for like thirty five bucks. That's the best
way that I can answer this very simple question, and
(07:30):
trust me, if it's a good fit for you, you'll know,
all right. So let's bump onto question number two. And
I love this one, and I don't know. Thank Ava
Johnston in Peoria Illinois for sending it in. She writes,
I am not a Mason. What is the single most
important thing you think I should know about Freemasonry? We
always talk about the idea of making good men better,
(07:52):
and like, what does that mean? So, if you've interacted
with a Mason and he's used that term around you
personal development leadership skills, I think you'd want to know
that they have a very inquisitive intellect, their truth seekers.
They're independent thinkers. They like the company of other like
minded people that they can feel comfortable talking with. But
(08:12):
they also, in the same breath, like to be around
others that offer a different viewpoint or take on things,
and they don't feel challenged by that. I think that's
the most important thing that you should know about Freemasonry.
You're going to look things up on the Internet and
you're going to see all the wonderful American revolutionary ties
that we have, some of the great presidents who are Freemasons,
some of the most wonderful and amazing men throughout history
(08:35):
who have been Freemasons, the wonderful charity work that we do,
how involved we are in our communities. These are all very, very,
very good things. But I think for your situation is like,
how is it going to impact you personally? Is if
you do interact with someone who says, yeah, I'm a Freemason,
whether it's some guy that you work with, a dude
that you met on the internet that you're interested in dating,
(08:56):
or maybe you got a new family member this year,
what do you need to know about Freemason? The good people.
They're open hearted, they're kind, They're the kind of people
that if they see a problem, they're one of the
first to stand up and want to go do something
about it, and in a good way. When I put
the call out in I think it was August, we
started asking or soliciting it for emails for this listener episode.
(09:18):
I got a huge one from brother Jonathan Winters in
Upstate New York, and he had quite a few questions
for this episode, so I wanted to hit them all
up here in order. His first question is a really
good one. He asks, where can I go to get
a copy of everything that was said and performed during
the entered apprentice degree. I want to study it more deeply.
I have a disability. I would like something that I
(09:40):
can read so that I can digest the lectures even
more over time, do you have any suggestions? What about
the Livingston Library Reading Course. I love when sometimes people
answer their own questions. The Livingston Library is a fantastic
resource for any brother in the Grand Lodge of New
York jurisdiction. Yes, I would highly recommend that. Let me
just have quick sidebar and then I'm gonna get to
(10:01):
like where you can learn about everything that was said
to you during your interad Apprentice degree or fellow craft
or even Master Mason degree. Uh livesein library is fantastic.
My advice is you're gonna see that the reading courses
that they have for the first three degrees of Freemasonry,
there will be quite an extensive waiting list to get
some of those books, which is okay and which is cool.
(10:22):
You can't actually start ordering them until you become a Mason.
So I would say the night that you get that
interd Apprentice degree, the next morning, go on to the
Grand Lodge of New York website which is Nymasons dot org,
click on the Livingstone Library, get over to the Livingston
Library Reading Course and definitely get in line for the
(10:43):
EA degree course, and then go ahead and put yourself
down for the fellow Craft and Master Mason. In my experience,
I didn't get the EA resources. And again, this was
like ten years ago, so I know that there's a
more demand for online learning now. But I was getting
the books for the EA degree until I was getting
ready to wrap up my Master Mason's degree, which is
(11:05):
fine because it was really good to kind of reinforce
all the things that I thought I learned in that
first degree. So yes, Livingston Library is a fantastic resource
for New York Masons. What about for everybody else? Well,
I would say in most jurisdictions, the copy of everything
that was said and performed during your entered apprentice degree.
(11:27):
It's going to have different terms. Some jurisdictions call it
a monitor, and I know in New York we call
it the standard work and lecture. You might have heard
it referred to as a ritual book. In most cases,
they're tiny little books that look like really really old
school bibles. You don't typically get those until you're a
master Mason. It's one of the Hey, you've now received
(11:49):
all of the secrets of freemasonry, and here's the little
book that's going to be in a ciphered presentation, so
that you could read it. Hold on, Brothers from the
Grand Lodge of Illinois. I know that most of yours
is an open text. That is the best example of
where you're going to find all of the ritual, word
for word that was said and performed during your degrees.
Specifically in the New York jurisdiction. For our EA degrees,
(12:13):
we have the Catechism, and I know that you're going
to get that little blue book which is going to
start your journey. Not everything that was said to you
is going to be in your catechism as you studied,
but it will account for the experience, let's say, and
some of the steps that you went through during your
degree work. The other thing I would say is whether
(12:35):
you have a disability. Some of us just see things
better by witnessing in person. And that's the other way
that you can learn so much about your degrees is
going and seeing other degrees after you get yours. That's
something that your launch brothers should have offered to you
and maybe even said, hey, let's go see this. Now
that you're an entered apprentice, we can take you to
(12:55):
this EA degree and you can see that. Of course,
you can only see the degrees that you have actually
gone through yourself, So don't expect to be able to
go see a fellowcraft or a Master Mason's degree if
you are an EA. So Jonathan's next question is a
good one too. He enjoys the Catechism and has a
very cool heritage, but he didn't join freemasonry to do
(13:17):
ritual for the sake of doing ritual, Amn Bro, I
have often said the same thing. I joined because I
wanted to learn how to be a better man and
how to better inculcate the virtues of the classical world.
How do you suggest learning that part of freemasonry? I
will say this In the early beginning for me as
(13:37):
an entered apprentice, I famously told my Masonic mentor that
I understand this Catechism is what I have to learn
to show that I can memorize something so that I
can get the next degree. That's how I viewed it initially.
I know it's so much more than that. During that
Catechism study is really where the real Masonic education takes place.
(13:57):
Or if you have a question about something that happens
during the degree work, it gets answered. It should be
kind of a one on one or if you're going
through the degree with a class or that means more
than one other brother that's a part of this degree.
They try to keep the group together, so to speak.
I always feel for guys that are going through degrees
by themselves because they really can only have that conversation
(14:19):
with their Masonic mentor. But if you're in a group
with at least one sometimes I've seen ten twelve other
guys all going through the degree together. Man, that's amazing
because you get so many different perspectives on things. That's
your in person level. You. Yes, can read books on
anything you want about freemason, be it a EA or
(14:40):
just somebody sitting on the sidelines. It really doesn't matter
if it's out in print. It is fair game. Even
podcasts like the Craftsman Online podcast, we don't give away
any of the secrets, but we do talk about a
lot of some of the points of the degrees and
kind of let you know, like where to look. I
think that's what you're going to experience, is that there's
really no one place to go to definitively. Some are
(15:02):
going to point to Albert Pike's books or Macky's some
of the classics, and yeah, you can try to take
on that. But if you're trying to learn more about
the craft outside of going through the ritual and study
of the studying the ritual, one of the books that honestly,
I was really happy to pick up as a fellow
(15:22):
craft was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I instantly started making
connections with some of the Masonic lessons that we learned
in the first two degrees of Freemasonry compared to what
he was writing about in his personal diary centuries ago.
All right, last question from Brother Winters. Do I have
to wait, and this is a really really good one,
(15:44):
Do I have to wait until I become a Master
Mason to get involved in charitable activities? The answer is hell, no,
you don't even have to be a Mason to get
involved with most of our charitable activities. We try to
get into the community as much as possible, So no,
don't have to be a Master Mason to get involved
in the activities. I'm sure your lodge is going to
(16:05):
have programs and initiatives and things that are important to them,
causes that they reach out to. You can always give
money for that, You can always volunteer for things in
your communities. I guess the question is do I have
to wait to become a master Mason to take leadership
roles in these committees or in some of the lodge
sponsored events, And that yes, you may have to wait
(16:25):
for that moment, depending on how your lodge leadership tree
is structured. But as far as getting involved, no, you
don't even have to be a Freemason to roll up
your sleeves and jump into it, and we welcome you
to bring friends and family that can do it. All right,
(17:05):
we are not even halfway through this special Listener Questions
Email episode. We're onto question number five from brother Darren Keeler,
who's a newly raised Master Mason who writes hello from
a mile high in Colorado. What are the best ways
to get involved in my lodge beyond just attending meetings? Oh, Darren,
that is such a good question, my guy. There's a
(17:27):
lot of things. Look, I'm not going to say don't
attend meetings. I think attending the meetings are honestly the
best way that you can stay engaged with your lodge.
They need you to be there. You know, as a
master Mason, something that you say in the Fellowcraft degree
that basically says, I'll be here and I'll be attending
the meetings, Like there's a reason why we put that
in there. But how do you get in launch involved
(17:48):
with your lodge beyond the meetings? It kind of piggybacks
off of the question the Brother Winters has is that
your lodge is going to have a lot of activities
or events that are taking place throughout the calendar year.
There are going to be leadership roles that are open
and like serving on a committee or taking the driving
role in planning some of these events, and they could
always use help for that. But then there's also the
(18:09):
support roles, which is, hey, I'll be the guy that
shows up a little early to clean up or stays
a little late to clean up again. You could also be,
like your lodge an ambassador in the community. And I
think we all serve our community and in this role
in some function and that we're a master Mason. We're
out in public. We see something that's going on, whether
it's a program at work, it's a sporting event with
(18:31):
your kids, team, your family, your church, whatever, you see
a need in that you can help better the community
and can bring that to the lodge and say, hey, guys,
we need to do this and we need to do that.
That's a way to get involved with your lodge beyond
just attending meetings. There's also going to be tons of
opportunity when it comes to helping the next brother. By that,
(18:51):
I mean being a part of your lodge's ritual or
degree team. There's never a shortage of conductors need to
be had for these degrees, and also probably many open
parts where there's memorization. Hey, you don't want to learn ritual,
you don't want to memorize things. I totally get it.
The other way that you can be involved beyond just
attending the meeting is attending the degrees and honestly visiting
(19:14):
other lodges and being a part of those lodges. Events
would be huge. So I'm talking about festive boards, special dinners,
or outing events that they have for couples or partner nights.
I know my lodge here in DC this year we
had a very successful cultural night that at the end
of the RSVP period we started seeing a lot of
other brothers jumping in from visiting lodges, which was amazing
(19:38):
because it just shows that Freemasonry is that it doesn't
matter what team. When I mean team, I mean what
lodge you are a member of. You're part of a
much larger one and being able to support each other
in our events, that's super key. It's great for you
and it's also good for your lodge. Okay, we're on
to question number six and this is a common one
that we got, so I'm kind of summarizing this and
(20:00):
it's about ritual It's a question, are there any tips?
Do I have any tips for learning and memorizing ritual work?
And this is going to be my controversial hot take
here on the Crafts Went Online podcast, So a reminder,
we do run that disclaimer that I think most people
skip over in the beginning of the episode, where these
views are mine and mine alone and not a member
of any grand lodge or any grand jurisdiction. So take
(20:22):
that as you may. When it comes to memorizing and
learning the ritual work, this was the biggest struggle for me,
not because I have a learning disability or just don't
have an aptitude to want to do it. It's just
that I was busy, man. I was going through divorce,
I was going back to school, working on my undergrad degrees.
I had started a new job. There were a lot
of changes that were taking place when I initially joined
(20:44):
a lodge and having to memorize I think it was
thirty minutes of back and forth questions and answers and
being able to do it at almost one hundred percent proficiency.
That was quite a challenge. So how did I learn this? Well?
Number one? And again this sounds so simple, but these
(21:07):
tiny little books and literally like this, if you could
hear this sound, that's how many pages were in my
catechism book on the first and second degree. I wore
that thing to work literally every day. And I understand
some people don't have a desk job, and even fewer
of us have like offices that we can shut the door.
But I was always carrying my ritual book with me.
(21:28):
I was highlighting the parts that I had trouble with.
I was circling the letters around the words so that
I knew that this was supposed to be a the,
and that was a that, and this is a this.
I literally any free moment, and I'm not trying to
be gross here, but during comfort breaks, that's what I
was on instead of looking at my social media feeds.
If I was at lunch I had my nose and
(21:49):
that little tiny book. I remember one time somebody coming
up to me and thinking it was one of those
little pamphlet books that you know, you used to get
way back in the day from church, and I was like, no, no,
it's not like that. It's just something that i'm studying
for this other group that I'm in. And they're like, oh, okay,
so that would be my ticket? Is like literally, just
try to carry around your Catechism with you everywhere you can. Okay,
(22:11):
what if that's not an option. Here's the other thing
that I did. I think I've shared this openly with
you guys before, but I run every other day now
and now I'm doing workouts here at home, so I
am out working out at least thirty to forty minutes
every day of the week. When I was going through
(22:33):
my degree work. And this is my controversial hot take, Yes,
I admit to it. On my iPhone, I opened up
my voice memos and I recorded myself reading the Catechism.
Now here's why. Because someone's gonna say, oh, but don't
we say as part of our obligation that we won't
do Yeah, okay, we do say that. But I looked
(22:56):
at it this way. My voice memo was locked behind
at the time, my fingerprint to open up my phone.
Nobody had my code to get into my phone, and
still nobody does. I felt that it was pretty secure.
It was also buried in my voice memos app. So
if you really, really, really really wanted to learn all
(23:19):
of the secrets of Ramasonry, which you're not going to
get in our little catechism books. And then when I
was done with the degrees, I deleted the voice memo
and it's gone. I have since talked to brothers who
do have dyslexia or other severe learning conditions, and this
tip to them has been a lifesaver and kept them
(23:40):
engaged with the craft. Again, just be really careful with it.
I would put my earphones in and I knew, okay,
I'm going to be doing a thirty minute floor exercise
workout at five am in the chim by myself. I'm
listening to myself do my catechism. I'm going to go
out for a quick little out and back two and
a half mile run. I got forty minutes. I'm listening
to myself doing my catechism on my headphones. The one
(24:04):
thing that I would advise though, my brother, is if
you are going to do that, I'm going to record
myself doing the catechism to listen to it route. Just
make sure that all the words are correct. This isn't
a way to get around that initial that you gotta
work with your Masonic mentor. You gotta have everything down,
because there's nothing worse than I suffer from. It were
a couple key words I did not know them and
(24:26):
recorded myself saying them wrong. So every time when I
go to do that part of the ritual, I have
to pause because my brain knows to overwrite what it
was once told. The other key thing is I would
say about recording yourself and then hearing it back on playback.
I think it reduces that a brain fart problem that
a lot of us suffer from, because as you're going
through the Catechism, you're actually hearing the voice inside of
(24:49):
your head give you the answers instead of maybe a
mentor or a classmate or another brother who had worked
with you on your ritual. All right, I kind of
joked about this earlier. Masonic Books and Libraries. Worshipful Brother
Keith Riikel asked, what's a book that every mastermation should
have in his library. Ooh, this is a good one.
(25:11):
And with the number of writers and friends who are
writers of the podcast, I gotta be careful how I
answer it. So I answered this question has been We'll
be and is never going to change, contemplating craft Freemasonry,
working the Way of the Craftsman. Yeah, it's a super
long title. It's a book written by W Birk McNulty.
(25:33):
And here's why I love this book. I got this
years ago, and I mean like, oh jeez, probably like
eight years ago is before COVID definitely where brothers from
my lodge. We were getting ready to kind of break
for the summertime in New York. We don't meet in
the summer, so our idea was to form a little
book club. And the idea was like, hey, we got
three months here in the summertime. There were three of
(25:54):
us in this group. Each one of us is going
to call down a book and we'll meet once a month.
Usually it was at my townhouse and I was like,
cook everybody dinner, and then whoever had the selection for
that month. The book had to be available on Amazon,
which this is, and it had to be less than
twenty dollars, which it also is, and you'd get four
weeks to kind of read it. The thing was bring
(26:14):
three things you read that you really were interested in,
three that you had a question about, and then the
last thing was just like anything cool you wanted to
share with the group and talk about. Like the most
engaging three hours that I ever spent with guys. I
really enjoyed that. Here's what I like about the book.
It's basically set up as a chapter book with questions
at the end, So whether you're working on yourself for
(26:37):
like personal development or just looking for Masonic education, it
has like probing questions at the end of the book
that you can sit there and think about. The second
thing is this is great for just short talk bulletin
replacement material in lodges. If there's a worshipful master who
has open dates on his trustle board and you're looking
for some discussion topics in your lodge, Contemplating craft Freemason
(27:00):
Working the Way of the Craftsman by Kirk McNulty is
your solution. And because I love you so much, I'll
make sure to drop the link to purchase this on
Amazon in the notes for this episode, all Right, brother,
(27:38):
Christopher Schaubach in Minnesota wants to know what is your
favorite degree, either York or Scottish Write or Blue Lodge
And why good question, And you've kind of exposed the
underbelly here. I am a York right Mason. However I
dimitted from that, and I was a member of the
Scottish Write, but I never took my thirty second degree.
(27:58):
I was a COVID Scottish Ripe Mason and eventually also
dimitted from that. So at this point right now, I
consider myself a very Blue Lodge centric mason. So throughout
all of the degrees, my favorite degree in freemasonry and
that's the first degree. And here's why, Like I could
tell you a third degree is amazing. I think the
Herramic legend, when performed correctly, can be the best piece
(28:22):
of dramatic theater and entertainment than any brother will ever experience.
And it really does on deeper levels and so much
allegory as in that like really opened your mind to
like what's possible in freemasonry. Love the second degree too.
You want to talk about personal development tools, A lot
of history is in there. The brothers that can do
I've heard it called the winding staircase or that middle
(28:44):
chamber lecture. Man, that is chef's kiss. When it comes
to ritual. Why the first degree then, well, it's just
the experience of it because from you know, sounded like
eminem with you know, sweaty palms and mom spaghetti and
your belly just being I'm super nervous not knowing what
you're getting into the first time going into the preparation room. Like,
(29:05):
let's be honest, like you don't forget your first experience.
It shapes so much perspective about what everything else is
going to be. It sets that level, that expectation that
bar you never get it back. Either. The best way
that I get glimpses into what my first degree experience
was was going and being a part of other brothers degrees,
(29:27):
which I also highly recommend doing. So, yeah, first degree,
there's so much esotericism it's baked into it as well.
People write that off. Yeah, the historical lecture where you
get into how lodges are situated, what the furniture situation
might be here, stories about Moses and the parting of
the Red Sea. And then my favorite piece of Masonic
(29:49):
ritual is buried in there the point within a circle,
like it's just so deep and so wide and so
much knowledge is in there that yeah, first degree hands
down every day and twice on Sunday. All Right, we're
bumping along here, got a couple more to go. We're
up to question number ten, and I want to thank
right worship for Brother Andrew Barnes for sending this question
in how do you reconcile the rule about not discussing
(30:10):
politics or religion in lodge when they are such important
topics in the world. Ooh, that is a really good one.
And ironically I don't necessarily tease upcoming episodes too much,
but next week we are going to have Brother Matthew
Brockbank on The Craftsman Online podcast for an episode on
freemasons in politics. Matthew's actually running for an office in
(30:35):
his community, North Greenbush, New York, and I can't wait
to have that discussion with him on that. But how
do I feel about the rule about not discussing politics
or religion and Lodge. I've explained it this way before.
We certainly do, but not in this sense like oh, oh,
don't go clutch in your pearls. Not in the sense
that you think that we do. For example, I live
(30:57):
just outside the nation's capital my lodge right now in Washington,
d C. Don't need to get to talking about the
epicenter of American politics here too much. But when I'm
talking with brothers before lodge at the bar in our building,
we definitely do talk about politics. Do we talk about
(31:18):
one person's viewpoint or one side being right versus the other? No.
Do we have discussions where men are contributing and sharing
ideas or opinions that might make you that could be
considered challenging or better yet, their questions even make you
raise questions about why certain things are sure? Does it
(31:40):
ever get contentious?
Speaker 1 (31:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Have I ever seen guys get hauled out of the
lodge room because it was about to come down to
you know, throwing fists. Now doesn't happen here. I have
heard of that in other jurisdictions. And I'm not going
to get into the political fight about who was it
and what were they saying and what was going on.
I think you all know, like we live in a
very divided country, and the whole idea about Freemasonry as
(32:03):
we're supposed to be able to come together around issues
and you know show the world how brothers act, but
I think before we can do that, we do need
to have a discussion. And that's what's cool about freemasonry,
with being like minded and being around the right group
of guys. Obviously, I'm not going to walk into a
lodge that I don't know anybody in its Hey, guys,
(32:24):
what do you think about fill in the blank? It's
not gonna happen. I got to you got to take
the temperature of the room when these conversations start happening.
And if you know that anything you add is just
gonna throw gas on the fire, well be responsible. And
I think there's a lot of just personal conduct and
like you know, how to be a good person that
you learn in freemasonry, to where you can tell that
anything you say or add to the conversation isn't really
(32:47):
going to take it to the level that we need
it to be at. It's it's going to be more
distracting and detracting than bringing people together. So that's how
I feel about the political discussion. I've never heard a
political discussion in a lodge meeting ever. And I can
say now again I've had other brothers that have pointed
(33:07):
out like, well, wouldn't you consider saying the pledge of
allegiance a political act? And I guess it could be
viewed as that. If you've ever traveled to any other
jurisdiction outside of the US, they don't say the pledge
of allegiance to their flag before they start their meetings.
But that's something that we do in America. Let's talk
about religion. We discuss religion a lot in our lodge,
(33:28):
as weird as it may sound, as even a big
part of our ritual. Now, I know what you're saying,
don't clutch your pearls on that one either. I mean,
if we're actually using Biblical passages and Biblical stories as
an allegory to share or communicate a Masonic lesson, that's religion.
I think the key thing is is the discussing of
the religion. And I've seen programs where we have open
(33:49):
books talking about the Quran, talking about the Baca Ghita,
talking about ancient traditions and civilizations and what people believed
and why they thought this way, Greek God, Roman God,
star signs, all of this stuff. I've heard all of
these discussions in the lodge. The thing that makes it different, though,
is there's no motorium on like. You can't discuss that
(34:13):
in a lodge. I think the thing is is that
once you start talking about one being better than the
other or ruling all others, that's where the gavel has
to drop, in my opinion from the Master, and I've
never ever seen that or been exposed to that in
a Masonic lodge. So we definitely have discussions on religion
(34:34):
traditions in the historical context, but we're not sitting here
telling you why one is better than the other and
why you have to be a part of it. I
just want to say this before we get to the
final question here. If you've listened this long, if you've
shared an email question, if you one of our Day
one listeners on the Craftsman Online podcast, thank you so much.
I've enjoyed this episode. I think we should do this
(34:54):
every year and maybe a couple times during the year.
So definitely something for me to think about as we
get ready for a Sea six next January. Our last
question comes from Worshipful Brother Justin Robinson, and we save
the hardest one for last. He asks, who is a
dream guest you'd love to have on your show? Well,
(35:16):
I don't have just one answer to that. I would
like to talk to the following brothers, Brad Paisley, Representative
Jim Clydburn from the South Carolina sixth Congressional District, or
Shaquille O'Neill. And here's why I would love to talk
to either leaders in entertainment, leaders as sports figures and
have been leaders on teams, or leaders in our political system.
(35:39):
I'd love to learn how the same lessons that I
embrace as a freemason and just this regular guy in
the community, how that impacts them and how they are
lifting and using freemasonry and the principles that we learn
to become a better person and make this a better
place honestly. And you might think like, oh, well, a
guy that's you know, country singer that's on the stage,
(36:01):
or a dude to condunk basketball and take down the
whole backboard, or a member of Congress, like I would
love to just hear how freemasonry is a part of
every day life for them. As far as the guests
on the show, let me just go out with saying this,
I thank every single one of them, even our first
guests from the very very very very first episode of
(36:24):
the Craftsman Online podcast when I was still recording this
program on an old gaming mic that my son had
on the ironing board in the guest bedroom of our house,
to where we are now with the rig that I
get questioned with my wife when you're buying another microphone.
Of course, I want to make sure the show sounds good,
(36:45):
but all of the guests that we've had, seriously, this
would have been the most saddest and boring podcast and
I probably would have quit after six months if it
was just me talking all the time. So thank to
all of them. You have been a dream for me
and a reality that I enjoy all right. Normally at
this point I thank my guest who is on this week,
(37:06):
and that would just sound super gracious if I think myself.
So we're going to skip over that one. But I
want to thank you our listener, and especially those who
support us on Patreon for continuing to do that. If
you've enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow us on
Spotify or subscribe on Apple Podcasts. And seriously, the best
thing that you can do to share the message of
Craftsman Online is tell another brother about it. I'm right
(37:29):
worship for brother Michael Arsa until we get some time
together next week, Let peace and harmony prevail.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com