Tonight, I will be passed to the Fellow Craft degree. (I hope!) 

After much preparation and two practice sessions with all the participants, it would seem that I am ready to be passed to the 2nd degree.  I'm nervous.  I'm anxious.  I'm excited.

This work I have done with several members of the lodge has brought me closer to them and closer to the feeling of belonging I was seeking when I first turned to Masonry.

These are great guys who never turned me down when I needed help.  Encouraged me all the way and seem to show genuine excitement to having helped me attain the next level.

What were strangers just a few short months ago, I now call Brothers and feel a real kinship to them.   I look forward to being there for them when the time comes.

It is our annual DDGM visit as well so the night promisses to be full of pomp and ceremony.  I had better not blow it!

I have finally received my Masonic Signet ring!  I searched long and far for just the right ring.  Something I would be proud to wear and would tell the world that I am a proud Mason.  I also wanted something I could hand down to the family in later years.

My searching led me through some rather gaudy rings...some questionable quality...and some out-right rip-offs.  Finally I came upon a company in England who custom designs signet rings for family crests and the sort.  They had a section on Masonic/Templar rings and there I found many many beautiful designs and each design was fully customizable based on your needs and if you didn't find anything that worked for you, they could customize something based on your concept or drawing though I'm sure that price would be quite hefty.  (Anytime they say "call for a quote", you know you're going to pay through the nose).

Anyhow, I chose the classic square & compases with the G in the center and around the edge I put two latin mottos.  Familia Ante Omnia (Family above all) and Noli Irritare Leones (Do not irritate the lion)

The two have double meanings for me.  I have always believed and have been brought up that Family is the most important thing in life and now that I have joined the brotherhood of Masonry, that has brought a new dimension to that belief. 

The second motto also has two meanings to me.  I have always been the strong quiet type.  I am patient and reserved until the lion within me is awakened at which point, you will wish it hadn't been.  And...it's second meaning was pointed out to me by my wife.  She is a Leo...and we believe in our household that if Mamma ain't happy, nobody's happy...so she insisted I put that motto on to remind me to now irritate her.

Renfrew’s Masons celebrate 150 years -

First local master was Abel Dowswell

Celebrating 150 years. Ontario Masons District Chaplain Gordon Roberts provides an inspiring address during the September 2001 dedication of the Renfrew lodge’s new mosaic pavement. Renfrew Weekender

A few months ago the WM of my lodge asked me to put together an education piece for the lodge, no topic provided of course, but whatever I wish to talk about.  Now Im a bit of a fanatic for the craft, read all I can, take all the work that comes to me and spend countless hours memorizing the work for the oratory must be flawless or as close to as I can get!

For my topic I chose something that could well be an entire book, or certainly a large research paper.  That being said, and as it has turned out for me.  Expressing a concept which is I believe is not conveyable, it rightly gets stuck at the end of the pen!  Now when I give you the title of this paper you will perhaps understand where I am coming from on this.  A page and a half in, getting to the meat of things, and the thoughts and knowledge that are there simple will not come forth!

I've titled the paper, Secrets and Mysteries: Presence and Purpose of Symbols in Masonry.  The first part of the paper was quite easy to get out, as it focuses on asking the necessary questions and setting the concept of the Secrets of the craft. The Mysteries however, are elusive they can not be found literally in the work but in a personal understanding and as such are personal and cause writers block!  The purpose of this post itself is no more than a vain attempt to work that block out!

So how to convey it? How best to describe the eventual understanding that comes with the study and meditation on the work?  I say eventual understanding because that is what it is. The eventual path to wisdom, the elusive and mysterious concept that Solomon was so blessed with.  It can only be gleamed at for short periods of lucidness until it feels we are worthy of its embrace.

....

There, I think that helped.  I can go back to writing the paper and see what flows forth, sometimes the best thing to work out writers block is to write something different about what is blocking you!

Well, the new year is almost upon us.  The new Decade for that matter.

I have been un-expectedly visited by my lodge's Secretary who happens to have been my sponsor when I first petitioned the Lodge.  He happened to be in town on business and stopped in to wish the family good tidings and to drop off some literature and explain my next steps in Freemasonry.  (You think he reads this website and saw my previous blog about being impatient? hehehe) 

Anyway, I'm happy to have the work and look forward to being passed, though I'm nervous about all the memory work.  But my motto in anything I do is "If it's too easy or you're too comfortable with what you're doing, you're not in the right job".  My philosophy is always to get to the next level.  Keep things fresh.  Live on the edge.  Wow...I'm a cliche.  Sorry guys.

Anyway, the plan is to be passed at the February Lodge meeting then MM at the April meeting.  I'm really looking forward to life as a Mason because all my research seems to indicate that there is so much to delve into.  You can get your MM degree and then coast or you can continue your learning and that's exactly what attracted me to Freemasonry.  The constant exploration of knowledge.  It's much like my karate training.  I can get my blackbelt and sit back on my laurels or I can spend my life mastering my craft.

i'm looking forward to the ride.

I once blogged while deployed in Afghanistan so that I didn't have to answer 50 emails asking what life was like on camp...was I scared...was it dangerous...but since returning, I've never been one to blog nor even read other's blogs but we'll give this a try here and see if I continue with it or drop it.

I'm now an EA in a holding pattern.  I have been initiated and welcomed into my new lodge but now what?  I feel a bit abandoned.  I have no idea what the next step is nor if anyone is going to call me or if I just show up at the next meeting. 

Our meetings are monthly so in my mind, that's a long time to do nothing.  I just feel that I should be working on my next degree.  I guess I'm just too new and impatient and I'm sure all will fall into place after my next lodge meeting.  It is the holidays after all and we're all busy with family etc...

One thing keeping me excited and going is the new ring I have ordered from Dexterrings.com .  They make the most detailed family seal rings I have found yet and they have a special secion for Masonic and Templar rings.  I've chosen a classic Square & Compass motif with two Latin mottos around the edge.  The company is great to deal with sending emails back and forth with recommendations about size and placement and when it's all said and done, they send you artwork of the finished product for your approval before making the ring.  I am very anxious to receive it!

I am pleased to announce that CanadianMason.ca users with twitter accounts can now update thier twitter when they write a blog or story.

Simply click on your user name in the upper right hand corner to access your profile, select edit and then twitter account.  Once your twitter is filled in, every time you write a story or blog entry you will have the option of tweeting it!

Below the "body" box where you write you will find an entry called Post to twitter.com, simply check the Announce this post on Twitter box and when you hit save it will update.

Happy tweeting.

Our numbers dwindle and still we avoid making changes. 

Men are not attracted to freemasonry because unlike days gone by, there is competition for his attention.

No so gentlemen. I suggest freemasonic meetings have lost appeal because knowledge of the craft is not expected of a brother.  I suggest men of days gone past had more distractions than we could imagine. I suggest the struggle to survive too greater effort, of greater importance than something entertaining like a movie, a baseball game, a service club.

Smooth roads did not exist so travel was a major undertaking that took significant planning and commitment.  If you and I undertook to change a routine to attend a meeting, travelling over rough roads, that we would expect something useful would occur.

Written word had not yet replace spoken word.  Men passing on lessons one to the other, caused a bond that was shared by each mason.  Today, we behave as if taking time is wrong.  We act as if the years of skirting over our lessons just doesn't effect outcomes.

As our numbers decline, status quo will eventually change.  The creme of the organization will congretate and from those ashes, the order will recommit just as it has for hundreds of years.

We know that small forest fires keep a forest safe from fire-storms. But we continue to extinguish every spark and express shock when the hills are charred in a disconnected way.

Our order is experiencing renewal that has nothing at all to do with the distractions around us. Distractions have always plagued a man who can't stay on task. 

Meanwhile, we have an opportunity to open the books and recommit to learn the meaning of our antient landmarks and have opinions on the philosophy of freemasonry that are not plagarized.  As we are free thinkers, we learn from our mistakes. 

So the take away lesson is to know we are not different from our antient brethren. We are them and time is always on our side.

Dg

Well this is a new concept for me.  The bloggosphere, the news feeds of this site are primarlily other masons blogs and I find myself reading them for the first time and eagerly checking for new ones on the somewhat rare days I have internet access.  So I've decided to write one myself!

Here it goes.

I've recently discovered that our Brother Stephane Dafoe has released a new graphic novel called Outremer: The Saga of the Knights Templar.   I will eagerly be looking for this book know.  Acourding to the website http://www.templarcomics.com/ This is the first in a series about Hugues de Payens and Geoffroi de St. Omer and their struggles to create a new kind of knighthood.

I've always been facinated by the concept of knighthood and have tried to seek out an institution that holds those values, it's what drew me to masonry.  If anyone has read this first book Id really like to hear a review of it.  I may even write another blog entry after I've read it!  This is kind of fun!

There has been some discussion on this WWII epic(yet to be released) in the forums here, as well as some others that I frequent.

Set against a WWII backdrop on the Russian / Polish front, two enemy soldiers with a common bond through Freemasonry work together to stop an atrocity being committed by the Soviet intelligence service.  The movie is based off of actual events, although some of the movies history is highly debatable.

The official website for the movie is www.brotherswar.info and at this point doesn't have a release date, so I got in touch with the movie's producer and Masonic brother Tino Stuckman.  It is unfortunate, but the movie will not be going to theaters, it is scheduled however, to be released on TV and dvd in spring of 2009.  We don't have much of a wait!