I HAVE YOUR BACK: YOU HAVE MINE

Waxing philosophic, brushing up against Arthurian legend, historic truth was fluid for many writers to the extent we took all for truth. Until the humour was on us, an organization of such gravitas could not live on fabrication.  And it that period, a re-examination of earliler work began the authentic progress of a Brotherhood, unlike anything else.  Today, in Upper Canada and other similar states, hesitance has distracted us from the inspired work that was being built. Affirmation and validation, a body of self evident truths was constructed with metaphor that has withstood the harsh winds of cynicism and been a muted rally cry for insightful minds.  If not for the prejudice shown to Irishmen in London, the Antients might never have galvanized Irish and Scottish in a repudiation of the Premier Grand Lodge. The influence reached across the Atlantic, unstopped by elitist distinctions because the cultural makeup of the Celts was firm and old battles were remembered.  Today, in a secular environment, we have compromised the uniqueness of Freemasonry. Serious scholarship was pushed to the periphery. The calibre of an applicant became unimportant. Contemplation was pushed aside by those who distorted discovery into a feeble attempt to tell a man how and what to think.   An initiatory body of work was compromised from within.  And still, even hobbled, it has held enough appeal that millions have been drawn in. We simply quantified quality. It required deafness. When faux masonry was described, we did not hear the warning. Even today, moralizing is substitued for morality begging the question, have we reached the point of listening to ourselves? Together, we are stronging and better than we are individually. Individually we make discoveries that satisfy the mind. Sharing that process, respecting the apprentice needs to make his own discovery, is sharing. Freemasonry is a pilgramage of discovery forever.