"Old Tiler Talks" by Carl Claudy -1925

ON SECRETS

"Someone should speak to Brother Filmore," said the New Brother,

thoughtfully, sitting beside the Old Tiler.

"People do speak to him- I speak to him myself," countered the Old Tiler.

"I mean speak to him seriously."

"I speak to him seriously. I asked him tonight how his wife was,"

answered the Old Tiler.

"Oh, you know what I mean! I mean admonish him."

"About what?"

"About his carelessness of Masonic secrets. He runs the lantern and

leaves the slides out where any profane can see them. He takes them

home sometimes and his children can get them and..."

"I appoint you a committee of one to see that his children are all

properly murdered. No child should look at a Masonic slide and

live."

"Now you are kidding me."

"Boy, you are kidding yourself. The only secret about a Masonic

lantern slide thousands of Masons have tried to find, but none ever

have. It is not to be revealed by looking at them."

"I don't understand..."

"No secrets of Freemasonry are to be learned from a Masonic lantern

slide. They are sold to any one who has the price. If there was

anything secret about a lantern slide, making it would be against

Masonic obligations."

"But you said there was a secret..."

"Sure, but not a Masonic secret. Generations of Masons have tried

to learn who designed them that they might slay him with ceremony

and an axe. The harm done leaving Masonic lantern slides where the

profane may see them will come from the poor opinion the profane

gets from the Masonic slide conception of charity and brotherly

love and truth and relief. Some slides representing Time counting

the ringlets in the hair of the virgin give anyone with the

slightest idea of art the notion that Masons are all cubists! We

are trianglists or rightanglists, maybe, but not cubists! Those

illustrations of brotherly love in which one fat man lays a

ham-like arm lovingly about the bull-like neck of a misshapen Roman

gladiator would scare any child who saw it into such a fear of the

fraternity he would probably weep ever time Dad went to lodge...

but as far as giving away any Masonic secrets is concerned-

piffle!"

"You haven't the same reverence for the sacredness of Masonic ideas

as I have."

"Whoa! Boy, you have things upside down. My reverence for real

Masonic secrets is second to none. Your reverence is inclusive;

mine only for what is real. You wouldn't go home and tell your wife

that a lodgeroom has a chair in the east, where the Master sits,

that there is an Altar in the center of the lodge, or that

candidates take an obligation, would you?"

"Certainly not!"

"I would! The scrubwomen see the lodgeroom. If they can be

permitted to view its sacred outlines, I see no reason why my wife

shouldn't. In lodge entertainments we don't move the Altar and

women have entertained us after the lodge was closed, more than

once. Any catalogue of Masonic paraphernalia advertises hoodwinks,

and ours are regularly sent to the laundry, anyhow!

"The real secrets of Freemasonry mean something for you and me,

which is not for the uninitiated. But they are not upon lantern

slides, in the size of the room, the height of the ceiling or even

the place where a Worshipful Master hangs his hat! Circumspection

in speaking of the things of the lodge, as opposed to the spirit of

a lodge, is necessary only that no false idea be given the

outsider. If it were possible to photograph men receiving the first

degree, the profane might laugh, unappreciative of the symbolism

they saw. But do you really think the value of Masonic secrets

would be decreased by such an exhibition?

"A number of men have written exposes of Masonry. Half true, half

manufactured, no one is interested in them. In second-hand

bookstores you can pick them up for a few cents. They are in every

Masonic library. If what they contained really harmed the

fraternity, would the librarians not destroy them?"

"The secrets of Freemasonry are carried in your heart; they are not

what you see with your eyes or touch with your fingers. There is

nothing secret about an organ, or the music books the choir uses,

or the gavel the Master holds in his hand, nor yet the books in

which the Secretary records who has paid his dues. The shape and

form and furniture of a lodge is not a secret, nor the time of

meetings nor the name of the Chaplain! The lantern slide conceals

no secret worth knowing, nor does the chart to which the lecturer

points nor even the carpet laid down the second degree. These are

all but a means of putting a picture in your mind and it is the

meaning of that picture which must be sacredly kept, not the means

which put it there."

"Then you don't think someone ought to speak to Brother Filmore

seriously!"

"No, but there was a brother in this lodge who had to be spoken to

seriously. I did it.."

"Why, who was it?" asked the New Brother anxiously.

"You!" said the Old Tiler.

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, what we have done for

others and the world remains and is immortal. -Albert Pike

SOME WORDS FROM YESTERDAY  (1970)

Looking at the overall picture of American Masonry candidly and

thoughtfully, it seems to me the greatest single need of our Craft

today is a membership with a better understanding of what our

Fraternity is and especially of what it is not. Few indeed are the

Master Masons who know what Freemasonry really is; even more rare is

the species with a comprehension of what Freemasonry is not. Seniority

and rank seem to have little relationship to our ignorance. The number

of Masters, Past Masters and Grand Masters who are hazy as to what our

Craft is all about is appalling.

What has happened?

Well, we seem to assume that Freemasonry, is a fly-by-night fad of the

mid-Twentieth Century; something to be tossed hither and yon by every

wind that blows. In the restless, superficial age in which we live, we

are impatient unless our organized bodies have slogans, and carry

banners, and make official pronouncements on about every subject under

the sun, however trivial. We want them to follow the conventional

pattern; to maintain lobbies, to publish aims and objectives, conduct

drives and campaigns, strive to get into the headlines and on the

airwaves, write checks to everything that sounds benevolent and has a

board of directors, and, in general, to have a finger in every pie.

Freemasonry does none of these.

Strange, is it not, that our ancient Craft should have gained for

itself such a preeminent position of honor and prestige when it does

almost nothing in the conventional manner!

Then what is this Freemasonry to which I urge our Brethren to return?

What are its aims and objectives? What does it do?

Perhaps the last place we would expect to find an answer would be in

the First Book of Kings, and even then the answer will come as

something of a disappointment, for it is all so different from the

ways to which we have become accustomed.

Elijah was languishing in his cave on Mount Horeb in the conviction

that of all God's children only he had remained faithful to his trust.

By divine command, Elijah went forth and stood upon the mountain, and

the prophet tells us what happened:

"And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the

mountains brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was

not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was

not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord

was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice."

What does that mean to us this day? It means that Freemasonry erects

its Temples within the hearts of men. Even though we may not

understand what we are saying, we sound forth our purpose in trumpet

tones when, in our own Declaration of Principles, we proclaim,

"Through the improvement and strengthening of the character of the

individual man, Freemasonry seeks to improve the community."

And we tell the candidate for the degrees of Masonry the same thing in

words striking in their simplicity. "The design of the Masonic

Institution," we say to him, "is to make its votaries wiser, better,

and consequently, happier." Not a word about mass action, nor pressure

groups, nor resolutions on matters of state policy. No "pro" this nor

"anti" that. No sales talk for any pet scheme. No great undertakings

to cure the ills of the world by making everyone over to fit a pattern

of our own design. No running about like chickens with their beads off

in search of a do-good project with which to gain favorable notice. No

restless biting of the nails to compete with a service club or a civic

league. No endless "busyness" which loses sight of the objective.

The message of Freemasonry? Just this: that the Lord is not to be

found in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the

still, small voice!

The purpose of Freemasonry? Its purpose is the same as it has been

since the day when the stones for King Solomon's Temple were hewn,

squared and numbered in the quarries where they were raised. It is to

take an individual-just one man at a time, mind you, and as good a man

as possible-and try to make a better man out of him. That is all. How

desperately the world needs just that! And if that technique is

outmoded, then the experience of two thousand years is all wrong; the

Parable of the Mustard Seed is horse-and-buggy philosophy; the Leaven

in the Loaf is a cruel hoax.

The mere fact that men do not comprehend its purpose does not mean

that 'Freemasonry has no purpose, nor that its purpose is outmoded -it

only means that the stones are not being well hewn and squared in the

quarries where they are raised..

Freemasonry has not been tried in the balance and found wanting: it

has been found difficult and not tried.

More than anything else today, the world yearns for that same kind of

gentle, healing influence at work in the hearts of men. The Masonic

Institution, which sometimes is looked upon with scorn because it does

not operate in the conventional manner, is prepared to bear witness to

the fact that the conventional way of our age leaves much to be

desired, and to stand upon its own majestic affirmation that the way

to change human systems is to change human fives.

The wise and venerable Dean Roscoe Pound has seen more of life than

most of us, and views history with greater philosophical calm,

perhaps, than any of us Here is his message to his Brethren of the

Craft: "Freemasonry has more to offer the Twentieth Century than the

Twentieth Century has to offer Freemasonry."

Dwight L. Smith

Whither Are WE Traveling?

1970

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Brethern:

After reading Bro Dwight's message, I am moved to say something

revolutionary and simple.  Revolutionary in that it discards all of

the self-rightous talk we hear about the Fraternity being some kind of

mythical Order uplifting mankind by its mere existance.  And simple in

that it re-teaches us a lesson from the school playground:  You must

keep your eye on the ball or you cannot catch or hit effectively.  And

without catching or hitting, your game (of baseball) is lost.  What is

this "new formula"?  We must recognise that in order to uplift a man,

we must first initiate him. It is that simple!  Freemasonry is first

and foremost a Rite of Passage.  It has been the great rite of passage

for Western man since the spread of European civilization in the

1700s.  If we keep this in mind and repeat it often, we will keep

membership up by treating each action as one that we would want to be

seen by the uninitiated to encourage him to want to be a member.

Also, we will put our time and energy into activities like Rainbow and

Jobies and DeMolay that bring in family members of the youth for

activities and get them interested in joining the lodge, as well as

visitor's banquets and other things more directly aimed at membership.

Even each unsung act of lodge generosity is seen by someone, who is

then more kindly disposed to our Order. Keep repeating that

freemaonsry is a rite of passage, and magically your purpose as a

lodge becomes clear:  to improve each man and thus mankind by

initiating the influencial and the anonymous alike.  Those who have

the time to come to their daughter's Rainbow activities will see the

lodge and the members, that is a man, a family man, whom I want in my

lodge.  This is only one example, and I could go on, but you get the

idea.  Have a purpose.  Don't invent one just because someone said

that without a purpose the Fraternity would die.  You already have a

purpose:  Freemasonry is a Rite of Passage of the acceptance of adult

men into the fabric of Western society.  The more we keep this in

mind, the more it will be the reality that it once was.

In my not-so-humble opinion,

Bro J. R. Martin, MPS, et al.

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Dwight Smith refers to this article from the Dec 1961 Philalethes.

Who Killed Cock Robin ?

by ARTHUR H. STRICKLAND, M.P.S., (Kans.)

ALMOST every mail these days brings some Masonic literature containing

articles about poor attendance at Lodges, and losses in membership.

These articles, almost unanimously deplore the fact that memberships

are dropping down, and that attendance is falling off. Many are the

reasons that are advanced as to what causes this unfortunate

situation. This writer has read many of these articles trying to find

in one of them the answer to the problem. All sorts of opinions are

advanced but none seems to offer a solution. The lack of attendance is

attributed to motion picture shows, to the television, to motor cars

and to almost everything else. Also it is stated in some that the

modern idea of "togetherness" in families has hurt the attendance. All

of these things, no doubt, do contribute in some degree in keeping our

members away, but are they the real reason for the lack of enthusiasm

among our members?

It is an old theorem that what is easy to get, is not much

appreciated. It is our opinion that some of our loss in interest is

due to the fact that acquiring Masonic degrees has been made too easy

for the petitioners in recent years. In states where there is a

waiting period between degrees, this has been waived many times by

Grand Masters to permit candidates to hurry through the work. In our

own State of Kansas, the proposition is now being considered of doing

away with all waiting time, and letting the candidates progress as

they please. Some Lodges feel that they are obligated to call

innumerable special communications to rush candidates through as soon

as they are elected. We have done everything that we can think of to

cheapen Masonry. The whole burden has been assumed by the Lodge for

hustling men through the degrees, until all semblance of respect has

been eliminated from the minds of the candidates. Investigating

committees are slack in their investigations, and make reports to

their Lodges that are slipshod and not accurate. Many of these

committees fail altogether to make an investigation, and report with

no information at all.

These things have resulted in a lack of respect for the Order. We have

cheapened the Fraternity to the point that it is seriously reacting

against us. Our stated meetings are permitted to become dull and

uninteresting, and follow the same routine pattern. Officers are slow

to improve their programs, and the long tedious process of reading

minutes, allowing bills, reading correspondence, etc., finally wears

away the resistance of the "sideline" member, and he finally gives up

on the whole thing and stays home. The present day habit of

introducing everyone who has ever held any Masonic office is boring

and tiring to the members, and should be confined to official visits

of the Grand Master or his especially designated representative. This

writer has many times heard members complain of standing for 30 to 45

minutes or more while a long line of so-called distinguished guests is

brought in and one by one painfully introduced.

It is our considered opinion, that attendance at our Lodges will

improve when we start .to make our meetings attractive enough to

appeal to the members, and not before. Our presiding officers should

arrange to have the business handled promptly and efficiently, and

keep the boring features at a minimum. Get the business out of the

way, and then have time for some real "Masonic" activity. It can be

the conferral of a degree, or it can be a talk by some informed

Masons; it can be a paper prepared by one of the members on some

subject that is of interest to Masons; it can be the reading of the

Grand Lodge Laws and Regulations; it can be a reading of the

Landmarks, or the Ancient Articles; or it could be the reading of one

of the Masonic Service Association Short Talk Bulletins.