PHENOMENOLOY & FREEMASONRY

Personal development has never been the perview of a lodge.  Admittedly Lodges contain vast knowledge. Whether a member has a thirst for this is known only to him. How deeply he drinks,is public.  A thread of concern over the centuries,  has been from a mind that define poor scholarship as a personal failing, a result of us collectively lowered standards.  Why, only right minded people we allowed to ask their single question of the Delphi  Oracle, weren't they? 

Within the Order certain narratives have been drawn out while others are ignored.  Let's then examine one of those other narratives to see if it agrees or challenges the assumption that our failing is poor selection.  Being an Entered Apprentice  never was a guarantee a man will work as a Master Mason. That requires a good mentor dedicated, curious apprentice, effort and one in every 100,000 we find one genius, the Michelangelowho who draws life itself from stone.

I'm thinking selection came under fire for noble reasons- perhaps the poor student is lively company who attends even bored by education. Maybe he is masonically illiterate who doesn't connect his thoughts with the experience. Maybe he wasn't taught. The question for us is not the question for him. His question to the Oracle can be simple minded. Nevertheless the answer is for him to sort out.  It is said the Oracle gave obscure answers.  And her aides hustled you out of the grotto and brought in the next.

If we raise about the fray to look at all aspects, freemasonry cannot be other than what it is.  What can be done to improve?  Plenty!  Rather than a process of conviviality, lodges could convey the true philosophical message of purpose of the Craft. But oh my goodness- that would come from within not without.