LOCATUS

Ideas of honour, dignity, common good have been part of human structures from the stone age.  Does the antedeluvian in you think it reasonable that mankind came to exist with awareness of self  or might we think  that consciousness has been an anatomical adaptation?

We can't say definitively of course when 'freemasonry' came into existence.  We know ideas of the Rennaisance and Age of Enlightenment were out there before the reform in Britain and Europe. It tells us the ideas of freemasonry existed with or without a Grand Lodge, within a philosophical context. An antient might marvel at the extrivia that has accumulated along the way; the constitutions, warrants, definedauthority, standards and even a dress code that needed to be said. As sparse as they often are, a contempoary Lodge room would seem cluttered to a man who attended a make-do tavern room but not one who met in a gentlemens residence.  Standards and expectations were inevitable and became the source of many of today's practices.

This should tell us that freemasonry is a process of aspiring for insight. There is an expectation we apply philosophy and science to benefit mankind. This story line makes 'today' a snapshot in a time line; one without beginning or end- that streaks through life accumulating knowledge to assimilate and pass forward to the apprentice.  Even now, mentors are amongst us connecting, cajoling and critiqueing.

When a foundation shifts, it does not mean the entire structure should be scrapped. It sets our artificers to fix the problem. Until that moment, they lie in wait as the ultimate insurance against failure.  How to rebalance the Gentle Craft against the consequence of bureacracy is a question worthy of our best minds. Sit with me while we talk this over.

Graham