Portable Temples

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Randy Sanders

While creating a presentation on Creating Sacred Spaces a few months ago, it came to me that we are our own portable sacred space. This was a bit of an epiphany in that several things came together, connecting a few more dots.

Freemasonry teaches representation of the Temple of Solomon, and esoteric anatomy points us down a more personal internal path where even Christianity teaches us that we should internalize and contemplate the same. Corinthians: "Don’t you know you are the temple of God?" Or for those who enjoy the King James version, this is from the year 1610 edition I found on the Internet: "Knowe yee not that yee are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

If you're a serious student, scholar, or even practitioner of Christianity, shouldn't you take that literally as well as allegorically?

The sacred space within us travels with us. We don't simply leave the sacred space of our home, temple, or lodge to mix again with the world. We live that whole "mixing again" with the outside world, and we might want to focus a bit more on how we use our portable temple. It may well be impractical to cleanse a supermarket with sage or carry a censer around with incense, but we have alternatives that don't have to involve banishing rituals. We are Masons. We learn to invoke! We invoke the blessings of Deity before any serious undertakings, right?

So to cut to the chase, talk to your angels, or saints, or higher self. Invoke the blessings of the divine in all your doings as prescribed by the Masonic ritual. Understand that anywhere you go can be sacred, but it's up to you to apply that lesson in your own life. The moral lessons we learn in Freemasonry create the lens, and it's our lens with which we can see.

Bro. Randy

Bro. Randy and his wife Elyana live in O'Fallon, MO just outside of St. Louis. Randy earned a
Bachelors in Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry, and he works in telecom IT. He volunteers his time as a professional and personal mentor, is an NRA certified Chief Range Safety Officer, and enjoys competitive tactical pistol. He has a 30+ year background teaching Wing Chun Kung Fu, Chi Kung, and healing arts. Randy's Masonic bio includes lodge education officer of two blue lodges, running the Wentzville Lodge Book Club, active in York Rite AMD, Scottish Rite Valley of St. Louis co-librarian, Clerk of the Academy Of Reflection through the Valley of Guthrie, a trained facilitator for the Masonic Legacy Society. As a pre-COVID-19 pioneer in Masonic virtual education, Randy is an administrator of Refracted Light and an international presenter on esoteric topics. Randy enjoys facilitating and presenting Masonic esoteric education, and he hosts an open, weekly Masonic virtual Friday Happy Hour. Randy is an accomplished home chef, a certified barbecue judge, raises Great Pyrenees dogs, and enjoys travel and philosophy.

Inner Temple

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

RWB Michale H. Shirley

I’m a Certified Lodge Instructor, and I aspire to become a Grand Lecturer, so it’s fairly safe to say that Masonic ritual appeals to me a little bit. I love to give lectures, I love to learn new ones, and I love to teach it. But I try very hard to remember that knowing ritual is not what Masonry is about.

Most Worshipful Brother Terry L. Seward once said to me, “everything there is to know about Masonry is contained in our ritual.” He was, of course, right, and I’ve never known a man who loved our ritual more than MWB Seward. But it’s not his mastery of ritual that makes him a man whom I aspire to emulate. It’s the joy with which he embraces life, a joy that radiates out from him in every direction, that I admire.  It’s the light that shines in his inner temple. He would likely argue that knowing ritual has enabled him to make the choices that keep that light shining, and he’d be right.

In 1882, Illinois Grand Master William H. Scott, in his address to the Grand Lodge, had this to say about ritual:

Brethren, perfection in the work and lectures is a consummation earnestly to be hoped for. Yet if this is to be attained at the sacrifice of the great moral principles which Masonry teaches, they are purchased at too great a cost. We should never lose sight of these important lessons, nor forget that our ritual, beautiful as it is, and as desirable as it may be to have a correct knowledge of it, is only the scaffolding by the aid of which we are " to erect the inner temple of our lives."

Masonry is not all ''forms and ceremonies.'' A man may be an excellent ritualist, what some call "bright Mason," and at the same time a very bad Mason. It is well to be able to work well in the lodge, but it is far better to practice the Masonic virtues at all times, in the home, at our places of business, and before the world.

Ritual as scaffolding that helps us erect the inner temple of our lives is a metaphor that needs more attention. It’s easy to focus too much on ritual when you’re trying to put on a degree, and the temptation to start correcting people when they don’t know their parts is always there. But ritual is not Masonry.  It’s the path to Masonry.

Memorizing ritual enables me to carry it with me wherever I go, to meditate on its meaning, and to try to practice what it teaches. I don’t have to look it up. The more ritual I know, the more often I’ll be reminded of it by the events of my daily life and the choices they present to me. The more ritual I know, the more I’ll be able to apply it purposefully. It is knowing ritual, which means not just memorizing it but contemplating it, that gives me the chance to gain further light, and pushes me to choose to practice our true Masonic virtues. I find that when I neglect the ritual I slide back toward careless behavior in dealing with my fellow creatures. Neglecting the ritual makes it easier for me to act un-Masonically.

So I continue to work, however haltingly, to memorizing all the Work. Yes, I want the sense of accomplishment that comes with learning. Yes, I want to be able to assist in degrees. Yes, I want to earn the title of “Grand Lecturer.” But more than all of that, I want to be a Mason. As far as I’m concerned, there is no greater goal to which I can aspire.

~MHS

R.W.B. Michael H. Shirley serves the Grand Lodge of Illinois, A.F. & A.M, as Leadership Development Chairman and Assistant Area Deputy Grand Master of the Eastern Area. A Certified Lodge Instructor, he is a Past Master and Life Member of Tuscola Lodge No. 332 and a plural member of Island City Lodge No. 330, F & AM, in Minocqua, Wisconsin. He currently serves the Valley of Danville, AASR, as Most Wise Master of the George E. Burow Chapter of Rose Croix; he is also a member of the Illinois Lodge of Research, the York Rite, Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees, Eastern Star, Illini High Twelve, and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon. The author of several articles on British history, he teaches at Eastern Illinois University.You can contact him at: m.h.shirley@gmail.com