Albert Pike and a chemical separation from God
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I don't mean to prod. I'm just genuinely interested... Are you able to talk about what the oaths are (in a general sense)?
I have a solid knowledge of the Bible and a decent familiarity with the apocrypha. I believe Jesus came to set us free. And I don't think the prophecy surrounding that is coincidence. That said, I'm still curious what your thoughts are. Outside of some drunken conversations in front a bar in my younger days, I don't think I've really picked anybody's brain about the Masons who was actually in the organization. Do Freemasons follow the Bible?
...And I'm realizing that's probably not something you're super allowed to answer, so feel free to ignore it. Still curious about the oaths though.
You take an oath not to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry. Quite frankly though, you can find those secrets if you find a lodge ceremony book at used book store. A friend of mine found one recently. 50 bucks hahaha. Kind of careless of a mason to let a book wind up there, but, it is what it is.
That said though, there's many things you won't understand outside of a lodge, even with a book. Or, maybe you would.
The oath is also symbolic of various things, but I can't get into that.
As for following the Bible, no. Freemasonry is not a Christian organization. The Knights Templar is, but not the Blue Lodge. You can be Buhddist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, and be a part of the lodge. We believe "Holy texts" are pieces of a puzzle. The only requirement is that you acknowledge and believe in some higher power which organizes the universe. I don't subscribe to a religion, but I can indeed see two forces at play in our world: order, and disorder. They are both creative forces, but seek different things. As a being created out of order, I seek order, and seek to create more order. I believe in evolutionary theory, and do not believe in any "diety". And yet, there does appear to be a "grand architect of the universe" as we masons say. A force which organizes everything, against a force which disorganizes everything, at least from our perspective.
Here's a fun question to ponder: does our planet have consciousness? It created life. It grows, changes, heals it's self. It can respond to disease, or cataclysm. What would happen if we stopped getting along with it? Would it create a circumstance where our species would die off? And then would it create a new species?
The next question is, if our planet is a supreme form of life, and is conscious, how did it become that way? These are of course debatable. But they're fun seeds for thought. :)
There's a knights templar organization? Is that part of free masonry?
You seem like somebody I'd genuinely get along with in real life. I've definitely had a lot of these thoughts. Granted, at this point in my life, we disagree over some stuff, but I bet we'd have a good conversation over a beer.
Like, I don't think the earth has consciousness. I think... well here... I believe this verse in Hebrews -
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."
I know the Bible tends to jam people up when they don't believe in it. World's greatest cliche and all that. But I'm not trying to preach to you as much as I'm trying to support my idea here, because I know the idea of organized religion is nuts.
You ever looked into the non-biblical evidence we got of Jesus' existence? If you haven't, check it out sometime man, read what Tacitus wrote. It verifies a bunch of biblical accounts. It's quoted in the first part of this article (which I admittedly haven't read in its entirety).
https://reasonabletheology.org/jesus-outside-the-bible-1-tacitus/
If you can get yourself convinced Jesus existed in a historical sense, then read the prophecy we got on Jesus that we know came before his arrival (thanks to the dead sea scrolls), like daniel 9 just as one example.
I think there's a reason talking about Jesus still gets people so worked up regardless of what side of the fence they're on. And I honestly don't believe it's just because Christianity was the world's most successful cult. I think we live in a supernatural world we hardly understand.
As far as Jesus goes, I'm not sure if he existed as a real person or not. I tend to think that he did exist, that he was a spiritual leader bringing teachings from the east to the middle-east, and his words threatened the religious power structure at the time, so he was executed. The Pharasies controlled the hearts and minds of the people, and he brought a message of communing with God outside of their strangle hold. Powerful people don't enjoy it when you poke holes in their boat.
It's my understanding that the teachings of Jesus, and his life, were recrafted into a new religion about 300 years after his execution. Stories were spin, tales were told, to create a new system of order. After all, without police cars, guns, cellphones, computers, how do you keep order within a city? Well, one method would be to tell everyone that if you don't live by a certain moral standard, you will burn forever when you die. And that if you do live by a certain moral standard, you will be rewarded with eternal bliss when you die.
I can't even fault people for fabricating religions. It makes sense simply from an organizational standpoint. Unfortunately it was clearly co-opted by greedy men who wanted power.
The teachings of Jesus are rather standard spiritual lessons that we can see across a lot of religions. Real person or not, re-written 100 times or not, the biblical allegory of the new testament does in fact have some solid lessons.
I don't follow the Christian religion. I'm ex-christian in fact. But "Jesus" had some fantastic lessons to teach, and there's some fascinating things hidden within that "Holy" tome.
And yeah, I'd have a beer with you any day.
Makes sense. I've kinda bounced around in my beliefs too. Was raised super religious... Came to hate it... Thought of God as "the unknown," essentially the idea/force behind every mystery we don't understand, for a long portion of my life. Started looking for specifics in religions the last few years, when I came to the conclusion that the amount of evil in the world didn't make a lot of logical sense. Seemed to be a spiritual component on that side that was a little more sure of itself.
Haha, but anyway... Heck ya brothaaarrrr
Templars are not part of the Blue Lodge. They are an offshoot of Freemasonry. They hold different beliefs and follow different paths. To join the Templars you have to make an oath to Christianity. To join the Blue Lodge, you simply have to acknowledge a higher power, or creative source. I don't believe in a "god" in the conventional sense, but I acknowledge a creative power, and I believe that source of organizational energy does reveal its self to us. For example, why do I exist, and why do I seek to create order in my life. Why am I simply not a pile of chemicals floating around with no purpose.
There's also the Royal Arch, and the Scottish Rite. I don't have much interest in the Scottish Rite but one of my friends is a "32 Degree" in it. It's it's mostly watching or participating in allegorical plays. The Royal Arch interests me a bit more, but after a point I have to ask myself how much time out of my week I really want to invest in it all.
At the end of the day, for me within the Blue Lodge, we sit on some fantastic symbolism. We learn a lot from one a other. We learn about ourselves, we work together to try to make the world better, and our rituals serve as a way to bond us together, and remind us of what is important.
It's a boys club. "But you're controlled by blah blah blah". No, we're not. At least my lodge isn't. Nobody is telling me what to do or how to think. But I will say, like any club, or friendgroup, would you give your friends preference? If you were part of a homogenous culture, would you give preference to someone who thought the same way as you did? Of course you would. Because you'd know what you could expect out of them.
For the most part though, we drink whiskey, complain about our women, and share the knowledge we have about the world with one another.
Now if you'll excuse me I have a meeting with Satan at 6pm about how to best corrupt the children to make profits for Pfizer.