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I almost didn’t go to lodge last Tuesday. It had been one of those days. Work ran late, I was tired, and honestly, I knew what was on the agenda: bills to pay, committee reports, maybe a degree if we were lucky. The couch was calling. Netflix was right there. I could just skip one … Read more
Every institution is collapsing. Churches are hemorrhaging members. Civic organizations are dying. Social clubs are ghost towns. Everyone’s screaming about community while staring at their phones, alone. And then there’s Freemasonry…. Still here. Still working. Still transforming men after 300+ years. Why? Because Freemasonry never pretended to be something it’s not. The Institutions That Died … Read more
Your Lodge probably blames the wrong things for why young men aren’t joining. “Young people today aren’t interested in fraternity.” “They’re too busy with work and family.” “Social media has replaced real connection.” “They don’t value tradition anymore.” I’m 32. I joined Freemasonry at 28. And I can tell you exactly why most of my … Read more
Brotherhood. Not the watered-down, beer-commercial version. Not the LinkedIn networking nonsense. Real brotherhood, the kind where men actually give a damn about each other beyond what’s useful. Modern society didn’t just take this away. It systematically destroyed it, then sold us a subscription service as a replacement. The Loneliness Epidemic Nobody Wants to Talk About … Read more
It wouldn’t exist. Not because the principles are outdated. Because we’ve lost the ability to create anything that requires this much commitment. Think about it: if someone pitched Freemasonry as a startup today, they’d be laughed out of the room. “You want men to memorize hours of ritual? To meet in person? To progress through … Read more
I remember opening the Masonic Lodge Secretary app for the first time. Expected some complicated dashboard with fifty buttons I didn’t understand. Instead, I got a clean overview showing exactly what I needed to see. Member count. Upcoming meetings. Dues collection progress. Lodge health score. Everything important, nothing overwhelming. Within an hour, I’d added our … Read more
My first month as Secretary, I got a call at 9 PM on a Tuesday. The Worshipful Master needed to know who attended the last three meetings. I had no idea. The attendance sheets were somewhere. Maybe in the folder I brought home. Maybe still at the lodge. Maybe in my car. I told him … Read more
We lost three candidates last year. Not to scheduling conflicts or family obligations. We just lost track of them. One got initiated in March. His mentor moved out of state in April. Nobody assigned a new one. By June, he’d stopped showing up. Nobody noticed until September. By then, he was gone. That’s a $600 … Read more
We had 28 members at our January stated meeting. By June, we were down to 19. The Worshipful Master asked what happened. Nobody had a good answer. “Guys are busy.” “Summer’s always slow.” “That’s just how it is.” But we didn’t actually know. We were guessing. We had no data, just impressions and excuses. Then … Read more
Our Treasurer stood up at the October stated meeting and announced we had $8,400 in the bank. Everyone nodded. Sounded good. Meeting moved on. Two months later, we couldn’t pay Grand Lodge fees. Turned out we had $12,000 in annual expenses and only collected $7,500 in dues. The $8,400 balance looked healthy. The trajectory was … Read more
I spent two years managing our lodge with Excel spreadsheets. One for members. One for dues. One for officers. One for meeting attendance. Every time someone asked a question, I had to open three files, cross-reference data, and hope my formulas still worked. When I stepped down as Secretary, I handed my successor a folder … Read more
My Lodge didn’t have an Education Officer for the first three years I was a member. Education happened sporadically when someone felt inspired to give a talk, which meant it happened maybe three times a year. The talks were usually historical trivia that Brothers politely endured before moving on to dinner. Then we appointed our … Read more
“Don’t waste your time,” one Brother said. “They’re down to maybe twelve members. The building’s falling apart. They’ll be dark within five years.” ButI had to see for myself… I walked into a cramped Lodge room in a 100-year-old building that desperately needed repairs. Eight Brothers sat waiting for the meeting to start. Eight. My … Read more
I spent two years thinking my Lodge was dying. We’d lost members. Attendance was down. Our building needed repairs we couldn’t afford. I watched other Lodges posting photos of packed meetings and fancy events, and I felt like we were failing. Then I visited one of those “successful” Lodges. Beautiful building. Fifty guys at the … Read more
Six months after being raised to Master Mason, I wrote my demit letter. I didn’t send it, but I wrote it. Saved it in my drafts folder with “Lodge Resignation” as the subject line. This wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d joined seeking brotherhood, philosophical depth, and personal growth. What I got was business meetings about … Read more
They installed me as Worshipful Master. Beautiful ceremony. Standing ovation. Brothers congratulating me afterward, telling me I’d do great. I felt honored. Excited. Ready. But in a few months, I was crying in my car after Lodge meetings. Nobody warned me about that part… Everyone tells you being Worshipful Master is an honor. They tell … Read more
You think Freemasons have powerful secrets. Hidden knowledge. Ancient wisdom locked away behind closed doors. Well yes, we do have secrets, but they’re not what you think. They’re specific handshakes, recognition signs, and ritual words used to identify legitimate members. Practical stuff, not mystical revelations. The real wisdom of Freemasonry isn’t secret at all. It’s … Read more
You’ve heard that Freemasonry is about self-improvement and becoming a better man. But what does that actually mean? What are Masons learning at all those meetings? Are they memorizing ancient texts? Studying occult philosophy? Learning secret rituals that unlock hidden powers? The truth is simpler and more practical than the myths suggest. Freemasonry teaches a … Read more
I asked a Past Master with 40 years of experience what he wished someone had told him when he was a new Entered Apprentice. He paused for a long moment, then said: “That there’s a difference between learning ritual and learning Freemasonry. I spent my first five years memorizing words. Took me another decade to … Read more
I remember standing outside the lodge room after my Third Degree, still buzzing from the experience, when a now-fellow MM pulled me aside. “Brother,” he said; “You’ve just been raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. Now the real work begins.” He was right, though I didn’t fully understand what he meant at the … Read more
We love blaming the outside world. Anti-Masons. Conspiracy theorists. Netflix. Declining civic engagement. The list of external threats is endless, and we recite it every time membership numbers come up. It’s comforting. Blaming outsiders means we don’t have to look in the mirror. But Freemasonry’s greatest enemy has been sitting in our lodges for decades. … Read more
I was Junior Deacon when I made the mistake that still makes me cringe. We were raising a Brother to the sublime degree. I’d done the part dozens of times. I knew it cold. Except that night, standing in front of the candidate, I completely blanked on which direction to turn him. I froze. The … Read more
The anxiety hit me about three days before my proficiency exam. I’d been “studying” for weeks, which mostly meant staring at my cipher book while my mind wandered. I could get through maybe half of it without looking, but the other half was shaky. I kept telling myself I’d buckle down and really learn it, … Read more
Just like back in school, there’s always that guy in every lodge who seems to absorb ritual like a sponge. Meanwhile, you’re still stumbling through your proficiency six months later, wondering what’s wrong with you. I used to think those guys were just naturally gifted. Better memories. Smarter. Something I didn’t have. Turns out I … Read more
I’ve visited maybe 40 lodges over the past few years. Some were incredible experiences I still think about. Others were just another Tuesday night in a different building. The difference wasn’t the lodge. It was how I approached the visit. Most Masons treat visiting like tourism. Show up, watch the meeting, check it off the … Read more
We spend a lot of time talking about ritual proficiency. Can you do the opening? Do you know your catechism? Are you ready to confer a degree? All important stuff. But here’s what nobody mentions: knowing the ritual doesn’t make you a good Mason any more than knowing the Pledge of Allegiance makes you a … Read more
Life has a strange way of testing you. There are seasons where nothing seems to go right. You show up, you try, you hold your head high, but the ground keeps shifting beneath your feet. And then, without warning, something shifts. A door opens. A weight is lifted. One good thing leads to another, and … Read more
Perfection is impossible, and everyone knows it. But that’s not the point. What the world truly respects, what we admire in others and strive for in ourselves, is the effort. The consistent, quiet pursuit of something better. That’s where Freemasonry comes in… The teachings of the Craft never promise perfection. They don’t ask for it. … Read more
Freemasonry teaches that a man must continually improve himself while living by high moral standards and serving others. Its core principles of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth guide members in all areas of life. In practice, Masonic teachings emphasize duties to oneself, to fellow Masons, to one’s own lodge, to family, to one’s work, and … Read more
How does a man truly improve himself? Is it enough to simply know what is right, or must he actively shape himself through discipline and action? The great Stoic philosophers, like Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, understood that wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice are not traits we are born with… … they are skills we must … Read more