Sub Aspects To Our Archetypes

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Randy Sanders

One of many types of guided meditations might include a conversation with a mythical person, an archetype, or possibly a conversation with yourself.  Certain orders have their members choose an archetype for an extended conversation that might last from just a few hours to a year.  Why is that?  Are we deluding ourselves into thinking we’re actually in contact with this person or thought pattern? Or is the exercise the point?  How that particular contemplative exercise works long-term is a bit out of scope for this article, but it is worth exploring on your own.

We use these thought patterns, or archetypes, as symbols in our meditation as a means to gain deeper insight into any given situation.  Consider an issue with jurisprudence within a lodge as an example.  Who better to meditate upon for wisdom in dealing with this than wise King Solomon?  You get the picture.  Many of us have already done this, some many times, some have taken the journey with an archetype for a much longer period, considering what that archetype’s response might be to any current event or situation.  North Carolina’s Middle Chamber education program takes this to a different level, and without giving away what I know of it, let’s say I’m looking forward to booking my flights when the Middle Chamber course is offered again.

Here’s an exercise to consider when you’ve passed the initial work of having that internal conversation with these archetypes.  It really is just a means of exploring ideas beyond your own initial thoughts or normal consciousness.  I would like you to consider sub-aspects to our archetypes. 

Let’s focus on Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty for the moment, although we can use any of our Masonic Archetypal references.  Within Wisdom lies both Strength and Beauty, within Strength lies Wisdom and Beauty, within Beauty lies Wisdom and Strength.  You see here two possible sub-aspects to each archetype to expand your contemplation.

When you meditate upon Wisdom, or possibly Sophia if you get my reference, then what are the aspects that Strength and Beauty bring to Wisdom?  When we meditate and focus on asking King Solomon a question about an issue within the lodge, we focus our thoughts and become more aware of any “response” from King Solomon as the wise course of action.  We may repeat that meditation a few times to fully explore the Wisdom associated with the situation.  Afterward, we might then approach the same question, or meditation, on what response or advice HKOT or H. Abiff might give King Solomon if they were to speak of such things in council.  The same applies when asking HKOT or H. Abiff a question, and considering how the conversation might play out from the other two characters, or archetypes.

Then again, maybe not.  It’s just an exercise in your own contemplation, in your own thinking.

~RS

Bro. Randy Sanders and his wife Elyana live near St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Randy earned a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry, and he works in Telecom IT management. He volunteers as a professional and personal mentor, NRA certified Chief Range Safety Officer, and enjoys competitive tactical pistol, rifle, and shotgun. He has 30 plus years teaching Wing Chun Kung Fu, Chi Kung, and healing arts. Randy served as a Logistics Section Chief on two different United States federal Disaster Medical Assistance Teams over a 12-year span.

Randy is a 32nd-degree KCCH and Knight Templar.  His Masonic bio includes past Lodge Education Officer for two symbolic lodges, Founder of the Wentzville Lodge Book Club, member of the Grand Lodge of Missouri Education Committee, Sovereign Master of the E. F. Coonrod AMD Council No. 493, Co-Librarian of the Scottish Rite Valley of St. Louis, Clerk for the Academy of Reflection through the Valley of Guthrie, and a Facilitator for the Masonic Legacy Society.

Randy is a founding administrator for Refracted Light, a full contributor to Midnight Freemasons, and an international presenter on esoteric topics. Randy hosts an open ongoing weekly Masonic virtual Happy Hour on Friday evenings. Randy is an accomplished home chef, a certified barbecue judge, raises Great Pyrenees dogs, and enjoys travel and philosophy. 

Gratitude as a gavel

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Erik Marks

Application of the working tools is a constant topic of conversation with my brother. How do we, from moment to moment, choose to use the tools? The reason I put so much emphasis on mindfulness meditation is its utility as a training tool. Over time, the practice helps me stay present in the moment, notice my reactions, and then chose a response to something internal or external. In other words, I grant myself the space to choose what to do next rather than allow a patterned response to take command. 

 
In the gap between event and response, I can choose to be grateful. Gratitude is a key to a positive, transformative, constructive, outlook. The emotions I experience may not be a choice, my response to them can be. It is constant, conscious, choice to work or labor to get to that frame of mind. I think the work is worth the effort. 

 
While holding gratitude for an experience I can remain aware of my outdate reactive responses. I allow myself to see them without judgement: that is beauty. 

 
With gratitude, I can persevere to stay present and accept myself the way I am without harsh criticism or punishment: that is strength. 

 
In the transition as I move on from the moment, I can recognize that something different is possible. I can break off the old, automatic, habitual with the love of gratitude. From there, I can be or act in a new way: that is wisdom.

In moments of distress, gratitude gives access to emotional experiences of connection, positive outcomes, and resilience. By intentionally choosing to remember those bolstering memories in instances of pain, we can “knock off” some of the distress and reactivity and see the truth of each moment.

If an example would be helpful, I’ll offer one. If you’ve already understood my point and don’t need one, stop here.

 
In the past when I was in an accident or was injured in some way, I would get angry, often swear loudly, sometimes hit inanimate objects to express the pain I was experiencing. Somewhere along the way, due to the reactions of family, I realized maybe my anger-pain performance wasn’t necessary. It surely communicated I was hurt and upset about it. But what did it change? Nothing. And it didn’t help anything. In some instances, it scared people—which is not my goal. 

 
I started to train to circumscribe my reactivity, this unfortunate passion that seemed to overtake me. I would go back over old injuries and imagine I could just experience the event without reacting. For a while I switched from swearing to saying “oh yeah that’s good…I’m alive. The pain reminds me everything is working just fine…I’m fully alive.” Sure, it’s ridiculous. It’s also true. More importantly, in that moment, I changed. I planned and when the moment arrived, I chose to feel grateful for the pain and broke the old response off with the gavel of gratitude. I chose to experience the pain as a confirmation of being alive, of my humanness, and the miracle that one part of my body could communicate effectively that it was injured and damaged to my brain. 

I also started to notice things hurt less. The pain didn’t last as long because I wasn’t amplifying it with my pain performance. This insight is still new even if a few years old now. I was able to translate it to a more relational moment the week before writing this. Corinna gave me some important feedback about my words at the family dinner table. She had decided to delay communicating to me a little while after the event. As she spoke, I could feel myself get defensive since the feedback stung a little. She was right on target. Rather than respond reactively, I set the compasses and drew a circle around my reactive response… 

 
Next, I used gratitude for her and the communication of her experience to break off my reaction before I spoke. I reminded myself “this is a person who loves me, who has my, and our kids, best interests at heart.” As I listened to what was previously painful to acknowledge, my old patterned reaction subsided. I heard how my words at dinner furthered a dynamic neither of us want our sons to inherit. Some part of me didn’t want to believe I “did it again.” If I hadn’t accessed gratitude and allowed myself to become defensive in the moment, I would have “protected” myself from the truth through denial. I would have diverted us from light to an argument about my being defensive. I would have missed the painful truth, a blessed gift, a secret that I needed to receive.

~EM

Brother Erik Marks is a clinical social worker whose usual vocation has been in the field of human services in a wide range of settings since 1990. He was raised in 2017 by his biologically younger Brother and then Worshipful Master in Alpha Lodge in Framingham, MA. You may contact brother Marks by email: erik@StrongGrip.org

Where Do You See Beauty?

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Robert E. Jackson

Over the years, I've been involved in several conversations about the physical attributes of others. Beautiful, handsome, hot, sexy, ugly, homely, but it all comes back to 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.'

As a society, we seem to be infatuated with beauty. Fancy material items, medical procedures, expensive clothing, extensive workout regiments, all things we do to make ourselves appear to be more beautiful. It is a common joke, that some people are just “too ugly for TV”, or that performers have a “face for radio”. We have television shows that never, never, never die that are completely focused on outward appearance…that which society thinks is “beautiful”. And yet, starting at a young age, we are taught that, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Why as a society, do we seem to lose sight of that simple and common phrase?

The origination of the term is actually a paraphrase from Plato’s Symposium:

"Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may."

This phrase was later simplified by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford in her 1878 book, Molly Bawn. This is where we get “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, but like many things in our life, in order to truly understand the meaning, we need to dig for the foundation.

Thinking about Plato’s original statement, through our human eyes, we may perceive beauty. However, beauty is subjective, qualitative, and there is no Truth in perception. It is important here to distinguish between a Truth, and an agreement. Truth is a quantifiable measure. A divine attribute that can not be argued. There is a Truth in mathematics, a Truth in geometry, a measurable Truth in astronomy. And although there may be a Truth in nature (golden ratio), there is no truth in a persons physical attributes. After all, when discerning the beauty (or lack thereof) of a human, isn’t that where we often apply this common phrase?

I don’t know if I’ve ever heard the phrase “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, in reference to anything but physical beauty. And not just physical beauty, but physical beauty of a human. We see a couple, and we aren’t physically attracted to either party, it doesn’t bother us. It doesn’t cause us to emotionally erupt in a storm of verbal artillery. Why not? We remember the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and we move on.

So now I must ask, why do we only seem to apply this philosophy to physical beauty? Why is it so easy to accept that physically, our attraction (or lack thereof) to another can vary so greatly, but when we have discussions about food, music, politics, religion, we suddenly become more polarized? Yes these are topics we can feel very passionate about, but just because I find the music of Iron Maiden to be beautiful, that doesn’t make it Truth. One may be incredibly dedicated and passionate about a political or religious belief, but that doesn’t make that belief Truth (isn’t that why we call it a belief)?

Now, I’m not suggesting that anybody abandon their personal beliefs. I would simply like to posit that the term "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" does and should apply to far much more than our physical attributes of the meat suit. I can’t believe that Plato was merely thinking about the figure of a woman (or man) when he wrote his Symposium, but without summoning him, we’ll never know. 

However, if you were able to apply this phrase more universally, think of how it would help you. If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Shallow Hal,’ think about how happy Hal’s character was. His friend couldn’t accept it, and was nearly driven mad! Instead of an elevated heart rate driven by anger and confusion, accept that our perceptions and beliefs are different. If you’re ambitious, try to understand that beauty that another might see. And the next time you see a post, or hear a discussion, that you don’t agree with…simply remember, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

~REJ

Robert Edward Jackson is a Past Master and Secretary of Montgomery Lodge located in Milford, MA. His Masonic lineage includes his Father (Robert Maitland), Grandfather (Maitland Garrecht), and Great Grandfather (Edward Henry Jackson), a founding member of Scarsdale Lodge #1094 in Scarsdale, NY. When not studying ritual, he's busy being a father to his three kids, a husband, Boy Scout Leader, and a network engineer to pay for it all. He can be reached at info@montgomerylodge.org