My father was a freemason my grandfather was so I asked to join and they they were delighted and I had to have a an informal interview got asked a few questions and then the date was set for when I joined I had my my joining ceremony and then the rest is history
And that was 20 20 years ago now but I still remember it like it was yesterday my interesting Freemasonry was very much sparked at an early age I remember seeing my father and grandfather going officer meetings and very much enjoying their Freemasonry I’ve become very much attracted to the history the mysticism
Surrounding Freemasonry at the same time I was very much heavily involved with scouting before going to university and Freemasonry for me very much followed on from that so I joined masonry for a few reasons mainly one being for to extend my stuff to friends secondly because I was an inquisitive
Mind oh it’s never bit more about the history of Freemasonry I was asked to join by a good friend of mine my next-door neighbor and and at the time he asked me to put a letter into the lodge that I was interested in joining
In and what I could offer the lodge is a as a man and the things I could to bring so once that was approved that letter I went in for a short interview met some of the guys and I was I was happily approved which is great When I joined Freemasonry I thought I was just joining a single Lodge but actually I’ve joined a much larger community I’ve met made very good lifelong friends from a number of different lodges we now have a young Masons club called yes its cornerstone Club which provides an opportunity for
Like-minded individuals to come together and take my social and charitable activities throughout the year so in Freemasonry we sometimes have to stand up and do some talking and the good thing about that is that I couldn’t take that back tomorrow my work environment as a transferable skill so being able to
Have that confidence and stand up and talk to people almost with all authority and gives me a good standing at work first of all it’s enabled me to meet people from various backgrounds that I think I would have had the opportunity of meeting before I travel for work
Quite a lot so whether that’s local or international I’ve got a great connection across the world I think secondly it’s given me great life skills you know Lodge meetings we stand up and we and we present and we talk and that’s great and we do the same at work so it
Gives me confidence at work and then I think the other thing is coming to our meetings is a there’s a good space away from the busyness of life and work in general My initiation is actually very exciting although initially appeared quite daunting the actual ceremony itself was very personal and comforting and so now we’ll remember and treasure forever I was in a room with with lots of people that I knew lots of people that I didn’t know it was a warm friendly environment
It was a fantastic story it really was which continues throughout your Masonic journey and then after the meeting we had a lovely meal and a few drinks and and hang out that’s what it’s all about my initiation ceremony was quite special and special too to every Freemason that joins what I was
Blown away by was the amount of work that went in for that ceremony but lots of people that I’ve never met before and people that came up to afterwards you you almost feel like a superstar afters because everyone is there for you and for your initiation and you automatically have these great friends
Around you and friends for life the ceremonies are things which take us back to our roots of medieval stonemasons but also bring in some aspects of learning and personal development and there’s three ceremonies that we do quite often the first is the ceremony of initiation that brings a
Candidate into Freemasonry and it really allows that candidate to reflect on who they are on the fact that when everybody comes into this world they come in as equals and there’s life progresses sometimes people do better than other people and it teaches us that we need to
Be mindful of that and see what we can personally do to help out those people who are less well-off than us the second ceremony or the second degree that teaches us to better ourselves to reflect on who we are how we fit into the world how we can make ourselves
Better people through education and then the final ceremony the third degree that teaches us that that’s we only have so long on this world that we are all mortal and that we really need to make the most of the power time here you
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