A Traditional Observance Lodge

A Traditional Observance Lodge
Author: Cliff Porter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2013-05-01
Genre: Freemasonry
ISBN: 9780615802350

The author's home lodge is different. They suffer from higher than 100% attendance, men wait periods of longer than a year to get initiated, they have never lost a single Entered Apprentice, they have nobody on the roles who is NPD or has been dropped for NPD. Men arrive on lodge days at 8:00 a.m. and are often reluctently leaving for home near midnight or 2:00 a.m. Their dues are high by American standards, the background check is rigorous, and the initiations are solemn and serious. Every lodge meeting is treated as an event and celebrated as such. Dinner is treated as a feast with all its positive connotations. Freemasonry is celebrated in every aspect of the lodge. From the artwork, the furnishings, the set up and the atomosopher; all aspects of the lodge meeting are intentional and meant to create an experience. The Lodge is a Traditional Observance Lodge or T.O. Lodge as it is called by some. Like all labels, the Traditional Observance label has caused fear and fright, anger and frustration, confusion, and edicts. It has also helped to define the practices that make the author's lodge one of the most successful lodges in the United States by any standard one might choose to measure it. This book does not claim to provide a Masonic magic pill for the ailing lodges of the world. Nor does it claim in any fashion or form that the way this author's lodge operates is the only way or the best way to operate. What this book does is explain the the Traditional Observance model and encourages ideas in the area of increasing the lodge experience and allowing quality to become the watchword over every aspect of Freemasonry. The writings contains a mixture of personal experiences, practicle advice, and real life examples for creating a Traditional Observance lodge or increasing your lodges fulfillment.

Laudable Pursuit

Laudable Pursuit
Author: Knights of the North
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2008-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0557007224

Laudable Pursuit is an examination of the state of Freemasonry in the United States, and a plan of action for rejuvenating lodges in the 21st century. Based on topics raised in the 1960's by renowned Masonic author, Indiana Past Grand Master Dwight L. Smith - and then promptly ignored by the fraternity ' this new work is intended as a starting point for the future direction of Freemasonry.Written by the Knights of the North, a Masonic "think tank" of new and veteran Freemasons, and edited by Christopher L. Hodapp (bestselling author of Freemasons For Dummies), Laudable Pursuit is presented as a possible course of both progressive and traditional action for those interested in returning Freemasonry to its once noble stature in U.S. society, as well as equipping the fraternity to suit the new century. First presented as a paper before Lodge Vitruvian No.767 in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2005, Masons everywhere have found it to be a thought provoking signpost to the future.

Emulation Ritual

Emulation Ritual
Author: The Emulation Lodge of Improvement Unknown
Publisher: Lewis Masonic Pub Limited
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2007-07-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780853182825

The most detailed and authoritive text on the true meaning of the Taylors Masonic rituals! The principal contents of this book are the Official Taylors Lectures on the Three Degrees of Craft Freemasonry. These lectures deal with the description of the ritual of those Degrees along with their moral and symbolic significance and are of a formal nature, arranged as catechisms - that is by question and answer form. The text can be studied at home or can be preformed by two or more brethren in open lodge. Much evidence suggests that many sections of these lectures are as old as the degrees themselves. This book adds much to ones enjoyment and understanding of Freemasonry.

Circular

Circular
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 12
Release: 1943
Genre: Agriculture
ISBN:

Beyond the Craft

Beyond the Craft
Author: Keith B. Jackson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 90
Release: 1982-01
Genre: Freemasonry
ISBN: 9780853181286

Meander, Spiral, Explode

Meander, Spiral, Explode
Author: Jane Alison
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1948226138

"How lovely to discover a book on the craft of writing that is also fun to read . . . Alison asserts that the best stories follow patterns in nature, and by defining these new styles she offers writers the freedom to explore but with enough guidance to thrive." ―Maris Kreizman, Vulture A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019 | A Poets & Writers Best Books for Writers As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: “For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel― one we’re actually told to follow―and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides . . . But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculosexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?" W. G. Sebald’s Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc--or, in nature, wave. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her “museum of specimens” include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Gabriel García Márquez, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison. Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let’s leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike.

Rainbow Milk

Rainbow Milk
Author: Paul Mendez
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2021-06-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385547099

Nominated for a 34th annual Lambda Literary Award • An essential and revelatory coming-of-age narrative from a thrilling new voice, Rainbow Milk follows nineteen-year-old Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with his racial and sexual identities against the backdrop of his Jehovah's Witness upbringing. "The kind of novel you never knew you were waiting for." —Marlon James In the 1950s, ex-boxer Norman Alonso is a determined and humble Jamaican who has immigrated to Britain with his wife and children to secure a brighter future. Blighted with unexpected illness and racism, Norman and his family are resilient, but are all too aware that their family will need more than just hope to survive in their new country. At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a fresh start in London, escaping a broken immediate family, a repressive religious community and his depressed hometown in the industrial Black Country. But once he arrives he finds himself at a loss for a new center of gravity, and turns to sex work, music and art to create his own notions of love, masculinity and spirituality. A wholly original novel as tender as it is visceral, Rainbow Milk is a bold reckoning with race, class, sexuality, freedom and religion across generations, time and cultures.

The Secret Psychology of Freemasonry: Alchemy, Gnosis, and the Science of the Craft

The Secret Psychology of Freemasonry: Alchemy, Gnosis, and the Science of the Craft
Author: Cliff Porter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2011-06-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780615497709

Masonic ritual contains a veiled secret which points toward a hidden psychological current, inherent in the Western Mystical Tradition. This scarcely perceivable sentient science has manifested throughout the ages within the ancient Gnostic schools, the writings of the great Hermetic philosophers, and the noble art of Freemasonry. These institutions have operated as a means of perpetuating a method of personal typology and perception, which is essential to human interaction. The intrinsic numerological correspondences of Craft ritual contain the keys to perfecting this powerful system of communication and the Self. This seminal work provides a practical framework, through which the student can master his own typology, understand the elements of perception, and utilize vital communication techniques which can unlock the very mysteries of human existence. By employing techniques as diverse as Jungian psychoanalysis, Masonic geometry, and alchemical parable, Porter has formulated a unique and timely tome that is certain to revolutionize the perceptions of contemporary Masonic culture and the means by which we articulate ideas. We can detect deception, influence others, effect positive change, and synthesize a unique cognitive vernacular, specifically crafted to convey the most profound Masonic truths.

Freemasonry As a Way of Awakening

Freemasonry As a Way of Awakening
Author: Rémi Boyer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2020-09-22
Genre:
ISBN: 9781947907102

Initiation is by nature indefinable, elusive as the Spirit. Always, it is an initiation to one's own original nature or ultimate reality, to the Real, to the Absolute, to the Divine, to what remains, no matter the words since, precisely "there," there are no words. However, is it possible to approach by words, if not Initiation in itself, the initiatory, the human tension toward the "more than human," that is to say the unconditioned? The concept of initiation could then perhaps give us the inkling or the intuition of the initiatory which is at the same time mystical, esoteric, and poetic and help us to define the initiatory approach with a view to the elaboration of a practice of initiation that is sorely lacking in the West. Remember, however, that everything written here is totally false or rather, is neither true nor false. Some of these lines may be useful to the sagacious mind which wants to attempt the adventure of the quest, the only adventure that is worthwhile, but the essential will be between the lines, between the words, between the letters, in the Interval.