Missing Commas

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Randy Sanders

As Masons, we may know a phrase much like this one:  To learn to subdue my passions and to improve myself in Freemasonry.  Some lodges use very similar words in various parts of the ritual, and it is a beautiful phrase.  I heard a very similar phrase myself, and it left an impression on me even to this day.  I might have said these words, or again, very similar, myself. 

Why so vague?  The exact phrase and words are meaningless without context, denotation, and connotation combined.  In fact, they take on different meanings with the placement of commas.  George Steinmetz rightfully points out in his book “The Lost Word: Its Hidden Meaning” that commas weren’t used as much in older writing styles, and this tells me we should study the rituals and older poems with a bit of openness.  Let’s separate out some of the phrases by deconstructing sentences or chopping up long, wordy passages such as written by Albert Pike or other authors of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. 

Steinmetz goes on to examine this particular phrase of interest, and he applies an interesting logic.  Freemasonry is a trinary system, so this phrase in context doesn’t make sense.  The question being essentially: "Why are you here?"  The logical response would be either one single answer, or three.  If we look at the phrase as written, we see two:  Learn to subdue passions, and, improve myself.  Here we see Steinmetz at his best, taking a look at what we’ve seen or experienced for years and giving a different perspective in that we don’t know how they phrased this mouth-to-ear a couple of hundred years ago. 

With the addition of two commas, this phrase now makes more sense:  To learn, to subdue my passions, and to improve myself in Freemasonry.  There it is.  There is the trinary system in action, and looking a bit more deeply, we see the first phrase might apply to the EA, the second to the FC, and the third section to MM.  That is, to learn is the summation of the intent of the Entered Apprentice, to subdue passions is necessary for climbing the winding stairs, and improving your SELF in Freemasonry is synonymous with the lessons of the Third.  The phrase also applies to each degree as a complete answer.  The lessons of the EA also are to learn, subdue passions, and improve, while the FC lessons are to expand upon the lessons of the EA.  Becoming a MM doesn’t mean you are no longer EA or FC, and another excellent lesson is the realization that as a MM, the lessons of the EA and FC continue to be an integral part of your being an MM. 

We often hear the same ritual spoken the same way, the same inflections, the same phrasing.  Let us challenge that approach.  Why not start and stop in different places?  Turn words into phrases?  Change the inflection on words and syllables to test for different meanings? 

This isn’t a cited paper so much as an opinion piece, but I pulled the original concept from pp 28-29 “The Lost Word: Its Hidden Meaning” by George Steinmetz.  Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co., Richmond, VA., 1953.

~RS

Bro. Randy and his wife Elyana live near St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Randy earned a Bachelors's 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's 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 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.

Subduing Your Passions

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Steven L. Harrison 33˚, FMLR

"What come you here to do?

To learn to subdue my passions and improve myself in Freemasonry."

Sometime in the early '90s I met and interviewed Richard A. Pick. That's right. A result of parents who had either a cruel sense of humor or perhaps were a bit naive, his name was Dick Pick. He was and, still is, although he died in 1994, one of my technology heroes. Back in the mid-60s, the government funded his efforts to develop a comprehensive programming/database system, which he called Generalized Information Retrieval Language System (GIRLS) – Dick's parents weren't the only ones with a sense of humor. 

At the time of the interview the Pick System, as it came to be known, was a hot rival to Unix. In fact, in one article, Time Magazine observed, "If Dick Pick had worked at AT&T, there would be no Unix." Unless you have no knowledge of technology or live on the backside of the moon, you probably know Unix won that war. Regardless, Pick ran with his system and built an impressive company which, for a while, was an important force in the IT industry. 

After the interview, I attended a dinner and sat in nerd-vana along with a roomful of other geeks and listened to my IT idol give a scriptless, rambling speech. His technical expertise outweighed his speaking abilities. Nevertheless, he had a lot of good things to say, so I flew home, wrote an article and… if I do say so myself… turned the interview and his sow's ear of a speech into a silk purse, publishing it in a local tech journal.

Days later, I got a call from Pickworld Magazine wanting to reprint the piece. The magazine was the national journal for all-things Pick. They offered no money for it, but I figured it was good exposure and gave them permission. When the next edition of the magazine arrived, I opened it with great anticipation looking for my masterpiece – and there it was, word for word, presented as Dick Pick's own column, with nary a mention of me!  My brain exploded.

Our corporate attorney was a good friend of mine. I marched straight to his office and ranted about the offense I had suffered. He explained the ins and outs of plagiarism and cautioned me this was more of an ethical than a legal matter. In the end, he advised me there wasn't much I could do except protest.  Still, I wanted blood. Blood, the attorney couldn't give me, but he had some good advice. My wise friend looked at me across his desk, leaned forward, and said, "Steve, learn to choose your battles."

Choosing our battles has a lot in common with subduing our passions, doesn't it? We hear that admonition in every Lodge meeting; but subduing our passions does not mean letting people walk all over us. "Improve myself in Freemasonry" follows for a reason. It implies we should approach conflict not just as adults, but as compassionate, understanding Brothers. It tells us to think before we act and choose our battles, knowing when to act, when to back off, and not go for blood.

It's easier said than done. Learning to subdue your passions is a journey whose destination is a moving target. I recently shared with a Brother an issue I just can't let go of. That thing had cropped up in an incident unrelated to him, and instead of going completely off the rails, I discussed the matter with him.  I basically used him as a therapist. That's the great thing about our Brothers. We know when we ask they will keep things in confidence. Talking things through really helps. You don't need a therapist, you need a Brother who will listen or a friend who advises you to choose your battles. As a bonus, discussions like that sometimes lead to plans for dealing with tough issues; that's exactly what happened in this case.

As for that little episode with the magazine, I phoned Dick Pick and got his personal assurance that he was unaware of the magazine's actions. He actually made the magazine apologize and print a correction. That helped. But after all these years of hearing it in Lodge, I'm still working on subduing my passions. I'm not good at it. Maybe that's why, almost thirty years later, my library shelf still contains a copy of my original article, that edition of Pickworld, and the magazine's letter of apology.

~SLH

Bro. Steve Harrison, 33°  is Past Master of Liberty Lodge #31, Liberty, Missouri. He is also a Fellow and Past Master of the Missouri Lodge of Research. Among his other Masonic memberships is the St. Joseph Missouri Valley of the Scottish Rite, Liberty York Rite bodies, and Moila Shrine. He is also a member and Past Dean of the DeMolay Legion of Honor. Brother Harrison is a regular contributor to the Midnight Freemasons blog as well as several other Masonic publications. Brother Steve was Editor of the Missouri Freemason magazine for a decade and is a regular contributor to the Whence Came You podcast. Born in Indiana, he has a Master's Degree from Indiana University and is retired from a 35-year career in information technology. Steve and his wife Carolyn reside in northwest Missouri. He is the author of dozens of magazine articles and three books: Freemasonry Crosses the Mississippi, Freemasons — Tales From the Craft and Freemasons at Oak Island.