Arcana Lodge #187
Ancient Free & Accepted Masons

920 Lowry Avenue NE
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55418, USA

News From The East

First of all thank you all for helping and coming to our Annual Spaghetti dinner last month, it was certainly a success.  Special thanks goes to Arcana Chapter #38 Order of Eastern Star.  Like always they did an excellent job helping make this event a success.

In my last article I mentioned the need for our lodge to lean towards traditional Masonic values for the benefit of our members.  Therefore, starting in May we will have one stated meeting for normal lodge business, and the second stated meeting of the month will be dedicated to Masonic education at which we will hear Masonic lectures and listen to classical music composed by famous Masons.  This program is adapted from traditional lodges in the USA and the rest of the world, and I hope you will enjoy it.  I would like to personally invite you to attend our first educational meeting on May 23rd and make it a success.

Thank you,
Aleksandr Ivanov
Worshipful Master

News From The South

We had a nice turnout to buy spaghetti dinner tickets and to donate to our "Big Event", but the response to the 'opportunity to help' was small.  Just one brother said he would help.  I found that our Membership Roster has incorrect phone numbers for many of you.   Of the brothers I did reach, only three agreed to help.  Fortunately, an appeal to Eastern Star brought lots of help, in spite of the fact that we charge them $4,800 a year to meet in the building (oh, and two of the three brothers who helped were OES members).

I know there has not been consistent communication with you from the Lodge for a couple years, and we're working on that.  If you have concerns that are not being addressed, contact us.  The following "Ten Guides For Masons" should jog our memories.

Fraternally yours,
Vern Bandel
Jr. Warden
vbandel@mmmpcc.org

Masonic Light

Ten Guides for Masons

1. I am the representative of my Lodge and of all Free and Accepted Masons.  Whatever I do or say reflects directly upon myself and my fellow Freemasons everywhere and our good works.

2. I am responsible for what my Lodge and Freemasonry represent.  They can be no more than what my fellow Freemasons and I make them.

3. I should not criticize what my fellow Freemasons do for Freemasonry unless I have a better suggestion and I am prepared to do it myself.

4. I must remember that the fact that I bear the name, Master Mason or Freemason, is not enough.  I must continue to be worthy.

5. My fellow members and I are our Lodges and Freemasonry.  Without our active support they cease to exist.

6. My Lodge does me a favor by calling upon me.  I am not doing the Lodge a favor by serving.  It is both an obligation and a privilege to help the Lodge and Freemasonry.

7. I should treat my fellow Freemasons with the same respect, honor, and understanding that I would like to receive from them.

8. It is not a right to be a Freemason, it is an honor.  I should respect that honor by abiding by all of the precepts of my Lodge, my Grand Lodge, and Freemasonry as a whole.

9. Whatever differences my fellow Freemasons and I may have, we are all bound together by the bonds of our loyalty to The GAOTU, our families, the Lodge, and Freemasonry.

10. The willing Master Mason and his understanding family are the lifeblood of the Lodge and Freemasonry.

Behind the Symbol

The following is an excerpt from The Masonic Service Association of the United States Short Talk Bulletin, Volume 32, July 1954.

Archaeologists have discovered many old cities, built on the ruins of still older cities, which in turn were erected upon the remains of cities still older. These several cities were built, existed for a time, were destroyed and forgotten and new cities built above. The artifacts found at the top are totally different from those found at the bottom of the complete excavations, as in natural, since the several cities may have been thousands of years in building, life, destruction and rebuilding.

Many common words in English must be read in context if they are to be understood, which is one of the reasons those who speak other languages from birth find English so difficult. The "good" man may be either the moral man or the physically strong man. The "good" earth is that which grows crops well, while "good" credit is trustworthiness of him who possesses it; a "good" game may be either one which men like to play, or so well played that men like to watch it.

Masonic symbols are like the many buried cities of Ur of the Chaldees; similar to the many words which mean different things at different times to different people when used in different ways. It may be too much to say that all Masonic symbols have more than one meaning, but it is certainly true that most of those objects or ideas or practices which we call symbols have at least two and most of them many meanings.

As a rule only one - and that the simplest-- is described in the ritual. The rest, the individual brother is supposed to hunt out for himself.

A large book would be required to list all Masonic symbols and even suggest the several meanings of each. All that may be attempted here is a suggestion of the "symbol behind the symbol" in a few of Masonry's pictures. The word "pictures" here refers to the oft quoted definition of Masonry. "A beautiful system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols".

The symbol, then, is a picture. But it is not a mirror, which shows only what stands before it. It is an illustration which has more than one meaning.

The first, and among the most impressive symbols of Masonry to confront the candidate, to most initiates, is the apron. The candidate is told that it is "an emblem of innocence and the badge of a Mason".

What is "innocence", as the word here is used? Surely not ignorance! The lamb, the baby, the lily are "innocent", in the sense that they know nothing, especially nothing of evil, but a man grown - and no male less than a man grown may be a Mason - must know evil to distinguish the good.

Therefore, "innocence", as taught by the apron must be other than ignorance.

Originally, the Masonic apron was a skin, worn to protect both the clothing of the workman and the body beneath the clothing from injury, and perhaps to provide a pocket in which to carry tools.

The operative apron was not necessarily white. When it gave way to the smaller and "token" apron of lambskin (because that is a soft and pliable material), white, the color of "innocence", became associated with the apron., It is still associated, but the innocence is that of intent not to do evil, not of knowledge of evil. The Mason is "innocent" when his heart is gently towards weakness, chivalrous towards those dependent upon him, tolerate of his fellows' weaknesses, forgiving of his brethrens' mistakes.

Beneath this is the really great meaning of the apron; that of the dignity and worth of labor, the honor of being a workman, the glory of being a contributor to life and living. Perhaps this attitude toward labor and the laborer which in the early Middle Ages were considered mean and of no account, is Masonry's greatest contribution to a modern philosophy of life. That Mason who reads into his newly acquired lambskin the thought that it is a badge signifying that it is an honor to do constructive work, has hold of the symbol behind the symbol" of innocence and the real value of that which is "more ancient than the Golden Fleece".

In the Entered Apprentice Degree, an initiate learns the importance of the cornerstone, but so little stress is laid upon it ritualistically that many remain in ignorance of its principal significance - the "symbol behind the symbol" which is the necessity of sacrifice in any well ordered life.

The whole subject of cornerstones, cornerstone layings, cornerstone ceremonies, is bound up in the dreadful "foundation sacrifice" rites of the dark Ages when superstition ran rife and it was believed that buildings would fall if not protected by "good spirits" in the Other World. To provide these "good spirits", human beings were buried alive in hollow cornerstones, there to die a hideous death by suffocation, that their released spirits might guard the building to be erected upon the stone, against the evil work of the powers of darkness.

The rite survives only in the beautiful modern Masonic ceremony of laying the cornerstones of buildings. We are no longer superstitious about it, but we still hollow out the cornerstone and place therein small objects for posterity to see; the list of those who erected the building, coins of the day, a book, a photograph, a daily newspaper - whatever the imagination of the committee in charge may suggest.

We have the ceremony; we forget, most of us, its origin, but in freemasonry he who hunts for the symbol behind the symbol will find in the emphasis upon the cornerstone the need of sacrifice; the sacrifice of time, of effort, of thought which all good men in general and all good Masons in particular must make if they are to play other than a selfish part in the lives of their communities.

Future issues of the Arcana Trestleboard will host additional discussions of what’s behind other Masonic symbols.

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