MASONIC SEMINAR SERIES – Session I – Masonic Landmarks

Didn’t check that your good evening everyone and welcome to the Masonic seminar series my name is brother ktie Kier and I am your host for this group which is created by Universal co-masonry I have here in the office SL studio with me I have brother Patrick alisandra and brother Benjamin hardle

Who are helping me run it as restream on multiple platforms including Zoom so thank you to those brothers who are assisting me in this endeavor and I want to welcome everyone and wish them a happy New Year as we get started off on a new round of masonic seminars I see

Some old faces and some new names and so I’m just want to go over a little bit about what we do here at the Masonic seminar series what we do is we talk a lot about masonry in fact only about masonry if you’re familiar with our sister organization which is the Masonic

Philosophical Society but is a very discussion based group so here you’re going to hear me talk a lot and that is by Design and we have found that this is one of the more successful ways of disseminating information out into our communities about what Freemasonry is in

General and what Universal Co masonry is in particular so we created this group I want to say it was 2018 um and it has gone very successful thanks to your attendance and your your comments and questions each month we present something different and it’s always as I said centered around

Freemasonry so this evening we’ll be talking about the Masonic landmarks for those who are joining us from another obedience another Masonic order we welcome you I do want to remind you we do not talk about anything that is specific to the ritual so if I cut you

Off please do not be offended we do Safeguard those Secrets here at Universal com quite quite conservatively so when doubt don’t say is my recommendation so my next recommendation is if you have questions or comments along the way please use the virtual hand raising option we’ll one of the

Three of us will get to you to get your unmuted so that you can ask your question or comment if you are going to ask a question or have a comment please make sure it stays on topic nothing is more frustrating than someone who hijacks and goes some different

Direction and usually asks me about some question unrelated if you have questions that are unrelated uh to what we’re talking about this evening you can stay on afterwards we’ll be here for about 5 10 minutes to ask answer rather any specific questions you may have whether it’s about application process your

Application or about masony in general so a little bit about me I’m not that exciting so there’s not much to tell other than that I’ve been with universal Chason since the early 2000s this is my 20 something year um and masonry and everything that I present to

You is what I have come to understand masonry as and for those who are are chronic joiners which I appreciate uh you will have seen this presentation at least in title before but hopefully not actually in its Essence as one thing I really find it’s best to present

Something new every time even if the topic is the same because hopefully our mind is growing with understanding on those topics and so even if you joined us I think the last last time we presented this particular seminar was in 2021 even if you joined us way back then

Don’t worry about it because this time it’s going to be something new and every month there’s going to be something new so with that being said um brothers are the is the chat function still running so they can put stuff in the chat okay perfect so you can use the chat function

I’m I’m not necessarily going to be moning it myself so brother Patrick or brother Benjamin can take care of that and if you seem kind of looking off to the right that’s CU my computer screen’s that way so don’t think I’m being distracted all right so as I said we are

Talking about Masonic landmarks I will preface that this conversation is going to be much more philosophic much more spiritual and much more religious just because of the nature of the landmarks and what Universal co-masonry is in general so get ready you know fasten your seat Bel because we’re going to

Have a really interesting discussion I hope about the philosophy and the landmarks that protect the boundary of universal CH masonry in particular now one thing I want to preface as well is that as we’re going into this I want to keep in mind for those who have joined

Us over the past several months you’ve heard me use the term ad dogmatic a few times I want to bring that back up and make sure we’re all on the same page so I’m going to use that definition again and say what you’re going to be looking

At is landmarks that are for an admatic institution Universal co-masonry and what I mean by ad dogmatic is that you do not have to belong to any set religious or traditional belief in order to be a member of universal Comer that means that’s why it’s ad dogmatic you

Don’t have a set um belief system that everyone has to share in order to be a member that is not true across all the Masonic obediences there are plenty of organizations that are Masonic that you have to be Christian or Jewish or a lot of our secular um Brothers across the

World that are atheist and so forth and so on so when I am talking about the landmarks tonight it is about an admatic freeming please keep that in mind because the landmarks are going to be different from institution to institution and that’s kind of the heart of where we’re going to

Go so really quick when we look at the landmarks um landmarks as I’ve often said they’re like buoys in the water or their lighthouses they places of demarcation something that helps us delineate from that which is and that which is not so when we look at landmarks landmarks are

Very very important and unfortunately you can think of it as um sibling infighting if you will when you see obediences members of different obediences getting into who can be a member and who’s not they’re really fighting over landmarks that’s ultimately what they’re fighting over over and so it’s very unfortunate that

That happens even in freemasony I’d like to think we rise above it um but remember humans make up masonry as well so that comes with the territory when we look at landmarks remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set that’s from Proverbs I picked that

Because it’s uh every institution in in masonry has its own set landmarks and they’re not going to be the same from institution to institution there might be some overlap in fact a lot of places there are and a lot of places there are not so going to historical figure

Brother Albert Mackey he says that landmarks are th those ancient and therefore Universal customs of the order which either gradually grew into operation as rules of action excuse me or if at once enacted by any competent Authority were enacted at a period so remote that no account of their origin

Is to be found in the records of History so all that to say is that the landmarks come from a very ancient source or should come from a very ancient source and what we’re looking at today is what those landmarks are landmarks are specifically now this is Albert Mackey

Tends to be the authority by a lot of Masons to be the one that speaks about landmarks and what they are um the tricky thing about landmarks many of you may or may not know is that you technically can’t write them down they’re not supposed to be codified in

Any way but that’s one person’s opinion um which is Albert Mackey when he comes to it and says that every this is the Premier Grand Lodge this is the um the not the predecessor yeah the predecessor uh to the United Grand Lodge that says every annual Grand Lodge has an inherent

Power and authority to make new regulations or to alter these for the real benefits of these ancient FR of this ancient fraternity provided always that the old landmarks be carefully preserved so so there’s some movement allowed in landmarks from jurisdiction to jurisdiction this can get all very

Technical and we’re going to move away from that technical piece uh in the past I’ve gone over the the 25 or so landmarks that Mackie has given uh the world he wrote it down and said these are the landmarks but I’m not going to do that tonight I’m actually going to go

Over the specific landmarks of universal Comas um if you want to look up you can find the landmarks you can find it on any search engine and just Google um macky’s you know landmarks and see what makes something masony versus something that is not uh and that’s some places

It’s very liberal those those landmarks are very far apart and some of them are very very close together all right so um this illustration I want to give credit to is brother Benjamin hartle’s illustration that he created for our order and it has the 10 pillars of our principles our

Landmarks in which our foundation rests upon and we’re going to go through them um independently here one by one let me just move my screen there we go all right we’re going to go through a few of them excuse me and then we’ll stop and we’ll have questions and comments and

You can share your opinions and Thoughts with us I hope you will share your opinions and Thoughts with us so number one the belief in a supreme and absolute creative intelligence that is the first landmark of universal co-masonry so for those of you who are inquiring and you wondering like well am I

Eligible to be a member am I not this is the number one thing that we look for so brother Rosario is the one that works with domestic inquires and several Brothers work with our International inquires and the first thing we’re going to check for is do you believe in

Something higher than yourself now in other jurisdictions there’s very specific wording which is a belief in the Supreme Being it has to be some anthropomorphic figure and in Universal comry it can be if you if that’s how you have defined the creative intelligence but it doesn’t have to be it can be a

Pervading force of some of some kind so this belief in a supreme and absolute and creative intelligence is highly highly necessary in order to be a member of universal com it’s one of our first landmarks because it is the landmarks are there to help us understand how to

Graft into ritual if you’re not sure what masonry is it’s ritual it’s theurgy it’s ceremonial magic it’s creating something greater than what one can do by themselves through Brotherhood and through ceremony so when we look at rituals the rituals in Universal Comas are reliant on this fundamental

Principle the beauty about it is you can go to any Lodge or you can come here to headquarters when we have our workshops annually and you can sit down and at the table and sit over coffee or tea and just discuss what you think the attributes are of this creative

Intelligence is it a man is it a female is it a force is it love is it you know what is it and this allows for that that word that admatic uh discussion to come in so that we can have a robust conversation and come to understand our

Own understanding of what this creative intelligence is someone I not someone I often get asked over the years can atheists be Masons well it does depend on how you define an atheist if you’re going with the modern definition of the word atheist I would say no you can’t be

Because you do not believe in a creative and intelligent Force you don’t have to call it God you can call it any name you want um and Mason Mar call it the great architect of the universe but you have to believe in this in order for those

For that theor to connect to you that ceremonial impact that transition to connect with you if you don’t believe in something higher the rituals are going to be flat and meaningless and probably quite the opposite they’re going to be more intrusive because it’s going to grind against what you believe in so

There’s going to be um a friction that can be of a a magnitude that’s unbearable so if you’re an atheist in the modern sense of the word then I would say perhaps Universal coastering is not for you there are other Masonic obediences that are atheist as I mentioned Continental masonry tends to

Be very um entrenched in civil reform and is very atheistic in nature so that may be somewhere where that would speak better to you than perhaps an esoteric a dogmatic institution like Universal coony the other part of that when I said that it depends what type of atheist you

Are is if you are the atheist that says well I don’t believe that it’s a being like I don’t believe in the anthropomorphic individual I believe that there is something higher it’s just you know it’s not trapped in a form or it’s not contained in a form that’s fine

So by that definition you you could be possibly depending on how you feel about creative intelligences in general possibly be a member so this is one of the fundamental um one of the buoys in the water that says if you’re outside of this buoy perhaps this is not Institution for

You I love talking about the permanence of the soul and it’s kind of weird because I don’t know anything about it so I don’t know what I’m talking about when I’m like I love talking about it and maybe it’s because I like having the conversations with people with all the

Various understandings of what the soul is now for those who are maybe more Adept in um spiritual matters like spirit and soul and need a distinction we’re not talking about like the spirit of the creative intelligence we’re talking about the soul of um the human

Being okay and so when we talk about the immortality of the Soul we’re talking that that Soul can neither be created nor destroyed it can only be you know transferred from one Incarnation to the next now that doesn’t mean you have to believe in reincarnation it just means

That the soul you know if you believe in heaven or if you believe in hell like it the soul still continues it doesn’t go into um obliteration that it will all always exist now how it exists again is up to each brother to determine and understand and it’s not a guessing game

It’s not like what do you think it’s what have you studied what have you come to understand what is you know if you’re a religious person or if you’re in a spiritual tradition what has informed your understanding of what the permanence of the soul is and so this is

An extremely again I’ll say about all 10 of them they’re all very important but understanding that the soul is going going to keep going even when this vessel passes away is very important again it ties back into the theor of the ritual when you just think that this is

It this is the one life and after this we we’re done the souls or whatever is the essence of man is gone the rituals won’t speak to you in the way that it’s trying to it’s it’s like it’s almost speak in a different language you’re on one language wavelength and it’s on

Another when you have the landmarks and you you are one that truly embodies them because you believe in them not because you just want to belong to something but you genuinely internalize it as your own and you say okay well I do believe in a creative intelligence absolute and

Immutable and I do believe in the permanence of the Soul that’s a that’s a language the ritual can speak and therefore a relationship can be built between you as the practitioner and the ritual itself and you can start to feel the um the impact the profundity of the

Ritual upon your own physical spiritual mental Evolution so when we look at you know we’re talking specifically about these landmarks but landmarks in general um especially through the view of universal co-masonry when we look at these landmarks they’re not there to um what’s the word it’s not there to

Inhibit like some people are like well I don’t you know I don’t any Authority on me I need to believe whatever I want well that’s great like no one says you can’t believe what you want but if you want to have the maximum experience that ritual can offer you you got to figure

Out what the ritual speaks and if it doesn’t speak your language it’s not going to impact you and when I’m talking language I’m talking about language that is so deep and so uh personal that it’s almost incommunicable ironically so when we look at this the permanence of the soul the ritual really

Speaks to how does that Soul continue on that spiritual Evolution and whether or not it happens in one lifetime seven 12 infinite that is really again up to each Mason to understand and to really come to Gro if I can use that word um to really grock its meaning in Ming it’s

Not just that you come here with your beliefs and you don’t want to change it’s that you have your beliefs and you’re willing to share them with others and hear their beliefs and return so that you can experience what it’s like to have a different understanding and hopefully kind of like a comparative

Theology you can come to grow in your own understanding by understanding the differences that others have in the details I’m going to stop here I’m going to see if there’s any questions or comments to the matter and just remember if you raise your hand we have to give

Us like a 30 second so we can unmute you so the floor is open to any questions or comments so I have someone who sent me a chat a message personally it says belief or not belief does not change reality so why be concerned an assertion stands on its own

And you simply follow it or not and that’s from mark thank you Mark for sending that um I don’t disagree you know I’m going to kind of go it’s going to feel like a tangent but it’s really not because I know where I’m going so hang with me but there’s this in modern

Landscape today we feel like we have to prove everything like I believe in God or I don’t believe in God like I have to prove that to anyone who’s going to have that conversation with me well why if you believe in it you believe in it if you don’t believe in it

You don’t believe in it now I do think there is Merit in understanding why you believe or don’t believe in a thing just to say well I don’t believe in it is you know I think that is spiritually stunting but when you look at belief everything we do is based on belief if

You really look at the brass taxs of every action everything every relationship it’s all steeped in belief and so I think Mark makes an excellent point Believe it or don’t believe it it stands on its own and reality is what reality is but the one thing that masonry tries to do is

Tries to get you close to what reality is so it’s not that belief should be stagnant and say well that’s just what I believe and no one can challenge me again I think that’s very stunting um but it should be something that you are comfortable just saying at some point

Well that’s what I believe and I’ve given you my reasons after that like believe me or don’t believe me that’s that’s that’s your prerogative but this is what I believe and this is where I’m going to stand on my my convictions uh brother Christine thank you brother Katie um I just wanted to know if you could um explain theery and maybe parse out how it’s related to the ritual so theor G is going to be the essence of in this case we’re talking ceremonial magic so it is going to be the essence

Of ritual so Mark had brought up reality and I think that’s something we can talk about um in this case when we look at theor you have the ritual and for those who aren’t sure like I keep saying ritual you’re like what the heck is that ritual is the the methodology of which

We do our degree work so initiations which is the ceremony to become a member a passing which is to go to the second degree and then you have a raising which is to the third degree an advancement is to the mark degree an elevation so forth

And so on like they have their names um when you look at the ritual the ritual has a set way of doing things so if I in in Universal commoner we have one ritual meaning we don’t have variations in the ritual everyone’s working on the same additions same ritual even the rituals

That are done in different languages so we have English Spanish and Portuguese when we look at our different RIT or the different languages it’s still the same ritual so I’ve been able to sit in different Lodges of different languages and know exactly where I am because I

Know the I know the ritual so even though I I know I am not fluent in Portuguese unfortunately or Spanish um but I do know enough to understand where I’m going and even say lines that I can practice in a certain language to help

As a as an officer so when we look at this ritual this one ritual it has an Essence to it it’s intrinsically something more than what I put into it so postmodernism will tell us it’s whatever you mean like the ritual is whatever you think it is and

That’s simply not true the ritual is its own intrinsic value and as a mason or someone who is into ritual work you are touching you’re trying to touch the essence of that ritual and that Essence is the theery in a sense you’re trying to blend you with the ritual and that

Connection that spark is what’s going to be the theatrical magic that’s what propels through a meeting that’s what you feel so um if you’re sitting in a masonic meeting and you can have other places that do ritual work it’s not that it’s specific to just masing we’re not

The only people on the planet that do ritual but when you’re sitting through um ritual work and you’re watching it or you’re participating in it and you are moved by it and you can feel feel a current an undercurrent to it that’s that’s the theor so theor is the lifeblood to

Ritual so when we look at you know there’s times people say well I sat in the ritual and I didn’t feel anything well that’s because you couldn’t you couldn’t tap into the lifeblood of that ritual for whatever the reason I’m not saying that’s good or bad depends on the

Ritual so when you look at it the G is the essence of ritual and is intrinsic now you’re going to have you know brother Christine and I have sat in Lodge together so we’re going to see the same ritual we’re going to experience the same thee in a sense but we’re going

To walk away with two very different experiences because we’re two different people and we’re going to have our understanding of that and what that meant to us and how we felt and felt in that process and our experience like what we’re going through in life right now is going to impact that experience

Of filling the theor so the is the lifeblood of ritual and not all rituals are the same so even within masonry we you know we have different degrees Universal Co masonry are Masonic lad is what we call it is very different than most obediences as we have from the 1 to

The 33rd including um English uh or York right uh included in that latter each ritual is different so going to the holy Royal Arch of Jerusalem has a different current of theodric ma magic than a passing ceremon of the second degree and it’s not that one is better it’s not

That at all it’s that they’re just very different because there’s different colors there’s different regelia there’s different words there’s different stories there’s there’s just so so much um that’s a part of it so that that theog never gets you never get used to it you get used to like what words come

Next and when to stand and when to sit you get used to that but the impact is always going to be something different and I hope brother Christine I I answered your question brother Patrick uh there’s a question on YouTube that’s not explicitly about what we’re talking about but it’s about masonry

Generally um written in clay says I’m curious as to your experience with the masonry the jurisdiction I was raised within only refers to Eastern stars as female Masons I’d love to learn more about your experience so Eastern Star and we can TI this right into what we’re

Talking about Eastern Star is very than Universal com um one because Eastern Star is not a masonic order for women um it’s an ancillary um organization hosted by all you know the all male order for women of you know relations to a masculine Mason so brother cousin

Husband whatever the the is very very different in Eastern Star than it is in Universal comy um Universal com has both the masculine and The Feminine on multiple levels um um you have m is feminine so the members are masculine that’s why I’m brother Katie one of the

Reasons there’s many um there’s that balance you have the masculine feminine of having both male and female in the lodge you have both so I’ve sat in meetings where it’s predominantly women I’ve been in all male lodges I’m sure me being there was a you know I wouldn’t

Say disruption but it is a different you know there’s a feminine energy coming through that’s normally not there and I’ve also been in in large meetings where it’s almost a perfect blend of masculine energy and feminine energy and they all feel different so when we look at Universal Chason the women in

Universal Comm are female Brothers they are masons I was initiated ped and raised just like my you know brother Patrick and brother Benjamin here and brother um Christine who we were just talking to we all went through the same ceremony where the Eastern Star does not have that they have very different the

Um rituals and they have a different field they focus on a different thing and many people will correct me which is very funny they’ll say you’re not a Mason you’re an Eastern Star and and I do know what I belong to and what I have belonged to for over two decades and no

I’m not an Eastern Star I’m a I’m a Mason and I have done initiations I have been a master of a lodge I know what it’s like to be um in those various positions even if the offices are masculine it doesn’t matter if it’s a female or male energy that hosts that

Office meaning all the offices are masculine but I’m a female there is a blending of parts and that’s the one thing that Universal coas and all the other mixed orders that have men and women can share in common is that we have a blending of parts that you don’t get in gender

Specific rules um and gendered gendered masonry all male or all female so I hope that answers your question um I could go on forever but that is uh entirely different topic but there there are substantially different things that’s like asking um what is the difference between Florida

If I can use us um geography here Florida what is the difference between Florida and California they’re in the same land mass but they have very different cultures um Mark has one more question that he sent me and then we’ll move on does performing um does performing a ritual promote spiritual excuse me

Personal spiritual growth yes if you do it right it does actually promote Evolution that that again that permanence of the Soul tying that back into that second Landmark it does promote that that’s the I want to say it’s the sole purpose of ritual and the theor of rituals is to promote

Spiritual growth but it definitely comes with the experience um we I was just talking to some brothers the other day I don’t remember exactly how we got onto the topic but you have right-and path and left-and path rituals the left-and path is going to be self-serving the

Right hand path is going to going to be self-sacrificing masonry on the whole is self-sacrificing so in order to get there to be willing to do the things that are necessary for the betterment of humanity for the betterment of your Lodge for the betterment of your family

You have to have a certain level of Consciousness and that requires Evolution right um some people come in at a different we all come in at different Evolutions but the ritual it it’s not one size fits all but it is universal it will work with you because it’s

Ceremonial magic it will work with you on your own personal level to work out those things that are your obstacles that don’t allow you to progress in your spiritual evolution in pursuing higher Consciousness so it works those out Smooths them out and makes them so they’re no longer either a massive

Obstacle they kind degrades it down into a little little bump or completely gets rid of it depending on what it is so absolutely it can do that now again if you come for nefarious reasons if you come half-hearted you’re not going to get anything out of it it’s not going to

Do anything it’s like you know those times you went to church and you just didn’t care and you just sat in the Pew and and you walked away unchanged it’s the same thing so you have to you have to work on it Evolution even in the most

Natural sense of ecology you have to work for evolution it’s not just handed to you you have to survive you have to blend in you have to change and one person said if you’re not changing you’re dying and I was like well that’s a little dramatic but I do

Think it delivers the point um that you need to you need to constantly be looking at yourself and how you can improve and ritual not only shows you how to do that but it shows you how to love yourself in the process and not that left-hand path kind of love not

That selfish love it’s like this is what true love is and this is what self love really is and how can I use that to help me get to the place I need to be so I can be a better servant of humanity so I hope Mark that answers your question as well

Okay this is the one that I think you know some people can really get behind and there’s a lot of people who are like nah no no this isn’t for me the existence of a divine plan Guided by the spiritual and scientific forces of evolution Universal Comas asserts that spirituality and science scientific

Forces are not in opposition so this idea that religion and science is this that I you know modernity has brought to us and said you have you you have to accept this this binary this this and this is frankly just not true because science deals with the material it’s

Empirical it Deals Deals with the five senses the spirit deals with the metaphysical that which is beyond the physical you need both forces in order to evolve here’s an idea if you think of the permanence of the soul and you’re thinking about what what is my what’s

The state of my soul right my my individual who I am at this moment what is the state now that’s a big idea to kind of process for a long period of time like is it in a good state is it in a healthy state is it anemic does it

Need something like what what can I do to where do I need to go with this am I in a good spot well look at your physical form because The Vessel the material has to support the spiritual if your spiritual is such a radiant vibration and your your material vessel

Is not it it’s not compatible they have to be compatible in order to coexist so when we look at this existence of a divine plan that is working with both of these forces you can just look to yourself as an example you have a soul

You have a body do they interface and do they interface well um and that’s where you again you start start looking at that well how can I improve myself right there when we look at the divine plan we go back to that in landmark number one the belief in a supreme absolute

Creative intelligence that creative intelligence has a plan now whether that creative intelligence set the plan down and hasn’t touched it s in the sense of a deist understanding or maybe it’s more theistic that it’s someone who’s involved and it gets that plan rolling again the specifics doesn’t matter it

It’s I mean they do matter they do matter but they don’t matter to the institution meaning again it’s not this Dogma go back to that ad dogmatic understanding it’s not this Dogma that you have to you have to believe the divine plan is done this way this way

This way this way no you can believe in the details as far as your understanding can take you and we all understand things very very differently so we’re going to have a very different understanding of what that divine plan is but this idea you know to quote N

That we’ve killed God I would highly recommend reading the rest of that quote because it gets most um misinterpreted but you know what have we replaced god with was more n’s Point we’ve killed him and now what and now we see in modernity we see a huge lack of guidance and people are

Just floating they’re literally sitting in the in the sea with no s you know wind in their seil to push them along because they they don’t understand that there is a plan there’s a plan for Humanity there’s a plan for each individual I can’t say I know what the

Divine plan is for you I think I have an idea for what I think it is for Humanity but you know I’m going to talk to my brothers and I’m going to look at the ritual to help inform my understanding I’m going to go read every type of

Spiritual book and every type of physical book and like and just go and try to understand and eventually meditate with the Divine to come to an understanding what that divine plan is if we’re going to be servants it’s best to be servants that know where they’re

Going now you can sit in a room of a bunch of comons and as many as comons as there are in the room is as many interpretations of that Divine planet is going to be that’s the beauty of about being a dogmatic institution is that I can sit here with brother Patrick and

Brother veng and we can talk about it and we’ll have three different interpretations maybe I’m closer to one than the other maybe I’m not maybe they’re closer to each other than me but that’s the beauty because the best way to really know what you’re talking about

Is to talk about is to really have that conversation and when you understand that there’s a divine plan then it starts to make your meeting in life more meaningful one of the greatest enemies in masonry is nihilism the philosophy of nalism there’s no point there’s no purpose everything is just is whether we

Are meaning making machines as someone once told me or it’s intrinsic within us I think that’s saying the same thing if it’s intrinsic and we’re meaning making machines we we need meaning we need purpose and to not have that purpose leads us really without any direction

And so when we look at this existence of a divine plan it should be comforting not oppressive because it’s okay for someone that knows or something that knows what’s going to happen or what should happen to direct you because then all your efforts aren’t in vain you’re

Not squandering all of your talents and your skills in your life whether it’s one life for multiple not squandering it in a direction that doesn’t make sense so when we look at this the divine plan is extremely important and I think it’s one of those existential questions we

Should ask ourselves how do I fit into it like do I know my Dharma do I know my purpose do I know what I’m supposed to do and if I don’t where can I go to find those answers I tell you always go back to the

Ritual oftentimes you know you sit in a lodge meeting and we have a I want to say it’s a policy that sounds very bureaucratic but it’s a a contract that sounds even more good I don’t know what the word is but there’s an understanding there we go um that when

You come to the door of Mason room so when you’re coming into the LOD room that you leave all of your external life outside so like you know you got a flat tire your bossing you got into it you you had a great day you had a bad day

All of that just stays on the outside of the door and when you come in you are fully present in what you’re doing that helps add to the energy and the conduit um of the lodge for the the theistic magic okay it allows it to start to move

Because when you’re thinking about all the bad things that happen in your day it really starts to put blocks and you really can’t interact with the ritual and it can affect depending on how bad your day was it can affect your other brothers and you don’t want to do that

But the reason why I bring it up is that there’s times you know like sometimes you do come in and you’re just not in a great mood and you’re glad to be in Lodge but you’re Grump about it because you’re just grumpy about everything at

The moment and what I do when I get in those states to help me move everything outside that door is I think about questions like this I mean you can spend you do spend your whole life trying to answer this what is what is the divine

Plan what does that look like and you know start putting yourself into that question and and the answer I don’t know if the answer comes right away but there definitely you start to flush out all the negative energy and you start to clear out the thought forms that were

Kind clouded over you and you start to create a space that allows you to really realize that even in our insignificance because the divine plan is massive and I’m just one entity I seem so insignificant I’m really not and neither are you we’re really we are as

Important as we are insignificant we are both which is the Paradox and so we have a very important part to play in the divine plan but we also understand that we have so many other people who have bigger parts to play and that’s okay so having that interchange between where do

I fit in the grand scheme of things is really really important because what is the number one thing that people think of in masonry like just in general if you ask any person like what’s what’s Masons they always say we wear aprons why do we wear aprons because

We’re servants and if we want to be intelligent about our service if we want to be productive in our service again it’s always good to try to see if we can get an understanding of the part of the plan that we’re in that part of the task

Tapestry that we’re woven into to see how we fit in so that we can help push Humanity towards its Destiny this one is very very important um also because this is probably the one that a lot of other Masons may not agree with this Landmark the development of a universal Brotherhood without

Distinction it Universal Chason All Souls are equal meaning that my soul is not more important than yours my soul is not better than you we are equals and as such we sit in Lodge as Souls not as individuals so I my husband isn’t masonry he is my brother first in

Masonry before he’s my husband so when we go into Lodge the context of our interaction is very different because he is my brother again that sounds weird but remember we’re talking about masing he is my my fellow and we are on the same spiritual journey we’re sharing it but we are very

Individual now when we get out of Lodge and I’ll be as bosses I can because I can be because I’m his wife but in L it’s very different so when we look at Universal Brotherhood without distinction we don’t sit there and say we are greater than you because we

Believe that everyone has a part to play in the divine plan whether they choose to be a mason or not you know it’s not that we’re going to go CR and say that your soul is damned if you don’t join that’s not it at all it’s more of trying

To get people to realize you have a part to play go find out what that part is because even if I could do it I would do a terrible job because it’s not my part to play it’s your job to play that part and so having that Universal Brotherhood without distinction is extremely

Important because it’s talking at a spiritual level is talking that everyone is going to have a part to play in the Brotherhood of Man of humanity and so yes we have um sayings like you know you want to treat your brother in masonry with you know the greatest respect but

You also want to treat the you know the person that’s not a brother with great respect you want to show respect to all have that conduct that ethical interaction that um leaves a favorable opinion of who you are to that person whether that person is of the same Faith

Same gender same you know belief system doesn’t matter so we strive very hard to have a universal Brotherhood without those distinctions it doesn’t matter what country you come from what religion you are I may not agree with you just because I believe in Universal Brotherhood doesn’t mean I won’t fight

Against beliefs that I think are horrible um that I think is everyone’s right to do but at least I will do it with a respect that you are human and you have a destiny to play and that um I just don’t agree with your opinions and

We’ll do that the best way we can which is through a ethical interaction we’ll stop after number five um how am I on to time I gotta hurry um so the presence of an ancient wisdom that has endured since time and Memorial if you ever ask someone how old is masonry like

When did it start there’s a few that will say 1717 um with Anderson’s 1723 with Anderson’s Constitution I think that’s very literal um I think that kind of kills the spirit of Mery but most people will tell you it’s from time immemorial well why is that because Freemason asserts a present

Of an ancient wisdom that ancient wisdom is what’s going to help us with number four that fourth Landmark it is the perennial faith it is the Ageless wisdom it is that what spirituality once was before time and distance broke it apart into its many different belief systems as it

Is today this is why a Mason can sit in a temple a synagogue or a mosque and be completely at home because we look for the truths that are interwoven in all of the different religions of the world we look for those truths we try to find

Them and if you again if you think about it it’s kind of like the big bang the Ageless wisdom is that Singularity where all of spiritual truth was contained and at some point it exploded like the big bang and it shot out and over time it has gotten further and further away from

The source and that’s why you’ll see Corruptions in all religions about you know this part or that part but if you look it close enough the occultist the person who can see within will see that there’s all threads of similarity and that there’s something in there that if

You just keep looking ties them all together and that is the ancient wisdom so that is why we can be a dogmatic in Universal chaster is because I’m not trying to convince you of a faith I’m trying to find the truths in your faith to see what truths are in my faith and

Try to find that ancient wisdom it’s interpolation you’re going backwards in time you’re trying to go from The Big Bang and go or from now back to that big bang to that single experience that’s ultimately what we’re trying to do and we assert that this has been from time

Some when time could not be measured it was before man knew how to record a time and this is something that is going to be a part of the ritual so you have in ritual you have words you have um like in in sense you have certain lighting

Certain colors you have certain music all of that is the The Vessel of ritual like the it’s like the material form you have the fear G which is the lifeblood and then you have the ancient wisdom those pieces of Truth those things that are ring trueth through all

Time that’s like the skeleton of which everything hangs on right and so when you look at the whole experience it it’s it’s all one big piece that we’ve kind of broken down into smaller chunks because it’s hard to to imagine what the ancient wisdom would be like and

Freeming Universal coasy you don’t find gurus these these are my opinions you know some may come up here next week and do the same presentation have a totally different set of in understanding of it and they’re you know they’re not the guru I’m not the guru but I am I am

Someone who has understood and come to understand ritual very deeply and I still have a lot more to go so when we look at masonry we look at there are no gurus but there are brothers and rituals that have a deep deep understanding and so sitting down and talking to them and

Say okay well tell me why you believe that tell me what comes from that and you will start to see that there is an underpinning that ties everyone together that’s why it doesn’t matter to me we talk about the polarity in the United States especially but the global

Polarization that’s going on I can sit in any room with any group of people and be completely at home um I might be a little more feisty in some groups because I like to debate but I will still be able to sit with them because I’m not trying to change them

Necessarily and trying to find the truths they have in their story and the truths they have in their narratives to see where this is coming from and every Mason should be doing this the ritual helps us try to find that ancient wisdom so that we can again interpolate back

And and piece things together like I said I’m going to stop here as I promised and see if there any questions or comments from any of the people attending Patrick uh so quasi twum asks on Facebook as we are not a charity organization what is our main objective

In Universal K hi quasi it’s nice to hear your your voice um so if we’re not a charitable organization what is our purpose is that the question so we’re not a philanthropic organization we’re not looking to just do charity like in the monetary sense I will say our Elder Brothers the all male

Craft Masons do that much better they have deeper Pockets than we do and they do a fantastic job so we we don’t step into that realm we do a charity of the spiritual kind the intellectual kind the philosophic kind so if you’re someone who’s like H I’d rather just you know

Host events and support groups through monetary funds that’s not us um Universal Co is all about serving charity through spiritual intellig not intelligent intellectual there we go spiritual intellectual and mental means so that’s what we work on that’s why we started the Masonic seminar that’s why we do the Masonic

Philosophical Society those are the reasons why we offered those to um people outside who may never become Masons but maybe enjoy just coming and so that way there’s always that growth in the groups that we have so quasi I hope that answered your question for you um

Any other questions or comments from any of the attendees you guys really like to hear me talk you right well I won’t disappoint we’re halfway through and we’re making decent time so number five and six go together I’m not really going to expound more on this just because the fundamental Unity of all

Religion the one thing you’ll never hear or shouldn’t hear I should say in Universal chary is you’re wrong um we don’t we don’t say that uh I can say I disagree with you and I deeply disagree with you there’s nothing wrong with that but to say you’re wrong is very

Presumptuous when we look at religion it’s unfortunate that the United States specifically and I don’t know about the global Trend but we’re seeing a decline in religion you know people affiliating with the religion and there’s a lot of anger towards religion um which is really really unfortunate when we look

At the fundamental Unity of all religion a Mason should be able to say like I was saying I can sit and read any sacred text I could read the vdus I could read the aing I could read the Bible I could read the Torah and I’ll find something

That is of like a pearl of you know knowledge and a pearl of understanding and it doesn’t matter that it came from the Quran or it came from you know the upanishad it doesn’t matter it matters that it is there’s a Unity amongst all the question I would ask and this is

Rhetorical and if you want to email me and answer it that’s fine is religion inherent to humanity because when we if we can answer the question then we can understand the impact that we have about religion especially if the religion is not being adhered to in um in a country or across

Countries is religion inherent to humanity I’ve asked myself that question quite a bit especially as we see this trend this negative Trend and I’ve come to the understanding that you can’t have a a any place where there’s humanity and not have a religion even atheism is a religion they have their churches they

Have their community centers they have a belief system just because they don’t believe in a God they’re still antitheist which means they believe that the negative of a God so that’s kind of if you follow my train of thought it does believe in a God but the negative

Of it when you look at that there’s religion everywhere so if man has religion everywhere and there’s no there’s no culture that has ever been and that currently is that doesn’t have some type of belief structure tied to it then there has to be a reason for it spiritual Evolution doesn’t create just

Like Natural Evolution doesn’t create in excess doesn’t just create because it can it creates because of need taking that understanding then we can start looking again going back to that ancient wisdom the fundamental Unity of all religions and seeing where the truth lies within each one of these another landmark is the spiritual

Hierarchy this one took me a long time to really wrap my head around um not because I didn’t necessarily believe it I just didn’t know how to believe it that makes sense I was not like I was like oh well you know there’s a spiritual hierarchy like who am I to say

There’s not I don’t know anything you know back in the day but really thought a lot about spiritual hierarchy especially very recently um for whatever my reasons are when we look at spiritual hierarchy spiritual hierarchy is that which we cannot see on the other side so you have hierarchy and masonry we’re

Very hierarchal you know we have a head of our order we have um a Supreme Council we have you know officers of Lodge we very disciplined in that way and there is a chain of which we communicate you know up the the hierarchal ladder and down like that’s

Very much in place even though that’s a physical it’s not a mental meaning you have to believe in such a way but it’s a physical one the spiritual one is interesting because if you ask yourself okay so I accept the assertion that there’s a divine plan and that there’s a

Creative intelligence okay well how would the divine plan get carried out well you would need agents that are working for that divine plan which means you probably have I would assume quite a handful of those individual idual of those entities helping you or helping the creative intelligence get that

Divine plan moving because one thing about humanity is we do like to uh Wander if we’re not directed so with a spiritual hierarchy you have to arrange them and put them in such a way that it becomes effective otherwise you’re wasting people’s talents and energy in in whatever form

They are so when we look at the organization of freem has a spiritual hierarchy we are a microcosm of a macrocosm and so when we look at that we are assisting in the spiritual hierarchy so we have a spiritual hierarchy again that doesn’t mean like you know this

Person’s more spiritual than I am so they’re higher than it that’s a perversion of it it’s saying that there are individuals who are more advanced than I am that I go to to seek advice from and that I will you know that they will help me along the way now when I’m

Talking about that they can give me their opinion and I still can go left if they tell me to go right it’s not that you have to do it their way but when we look at the hierarchy we’re looking at a way of organizing people’s skills and

Talents in such a way to promote the divine plan that’s what the spiritual hierarchy is if someone I’ve met some people over the years uh that are like I hate being told what to do don’t join masonry because you’ll be told how to sit you’ll

Be told how to stand but you won’t be told how to think that’s the one thing that like that’s your Liberty but how even how you dress in Lodge you’re told how to do so if you’re one that’s like well I’m just fre agent I do whatever I

Want whenever I want spiritual hierarchy is really not going to be for you when we look at the organization of Freemasonry as a spiritual hierarchy people are going to be marked by initiation that’s what initiation does it’s a it’s a ceremonial magical Mark that tells you that you’re ready to

Be assisting in that spiritual hierarchy now if you ask me like where are you on the spiritual like I I couldn’t tell you like what location I am or what but I accept the fact that there are betters than me and I accept that there are

People who look to me for guidance and I accept that I have a role to play in both places and so I do what I can to assist to the best of my moral judgment in that place and when I don’t know what the answer is I go to someone who I

Think Will and that may be someone immediate in merer that may be through prayer or meditation that may there’s a lot of different way so it’s this was a little bit more nebulous because you really have to kind of sit with it and come to understand it yourself but we do

Believe in a spiritual hierarchy and that we are Servants of that hierarchy I’m going to stop here because I have two comments um that came in or I guess one this is from Brother Caitlyn sorry Kine sorry brother Kine I know your name um what if a person who claims to be an

Atheist wants to be a part of universal coastering to gain wisdom and knowledge but is skeptical in believing in the Supreme Being how or what do we do in this case so it’s more to me it seems like it’s more like an AGN tic individual um

That it’s not that they don’t believe in God but it’s not that they do believe in God um I don’t know if there’s a one cut answer to this type of situation with every person because it just really depends on how they’re defining it now

Um I would say you probably want to be less skeptical than more if you’re going to be in masonry just because again you’re going to struggle possibly with the rituals as it talks about the great architect the Divine you know will and evolution and talking about these specific things like you can really

Struggle with it and maery it’s not that it’s against opposition or it’s not against you know trials and tribulations but it’s against unnecessary ones so if this is something that you can mitigate before you become a Mason I would recommend that however there are some people that you know just by the nature

Of how they believe in atheism that they they do believe but they don’t believe that’s kind of more towards the do they’re fine and they grow in their belief towards an creative intelligence and they’re fine so what would I do in that case I don’t know I would have to

Sit down and talk to the brother and say well tell me tell me what you believe and tell me what your struggles are and tell me about how you feel when you sit in this ritual or that ritual and really have a conversation and through that

Conflicts you can whe see whether or not they’re ready to join the spiritual hierarchy or if they’re they’re not ready to join and if the answer is they’re not that doesn’t mean forever that just means for now that maybe time and circumstances will change that they will become ready because the door of

Initiation is never fully shut um necessarily brother Patrick is there any questions from the platforms all right all right this one I I absolutely love because a lot of people um who are first coming into masonry or coming to know masonry find this very unique but it’s extremely essential

The power of Legend symbol ritual to transform and perfect so when we look at we’re going to take this and parse it out Legend symbol and ritual even though there’s a lot of overlap if you even look at macky’s description of um the landmarks one of

Them is that you have to have the landmark that there is a temple Legend it is the Cornerstone of the first three degrees of masonry which is the Cornerstone to the rest of masonry it’s more of a foundation than the Cornerstone but Legend is extremely important so Legend and myth we know is

Different like Legend is right before myth um right where history has moved us so far away from the great epic that it has has some Fantastical pieces to it um before it becomes completely Fantastical right so that’s kind of the evolution as we move away excuse me from what u a

Story has started out to be to what it can become as a mythology a legend is historical fiction that’s ultimately what it is so if you look at the Legends that are in masonry I don’t think any I mean there may be a few people but most people will

Tell you like no like that person wasn’t necessarily real or that this isn’t exactly what happened but we’re not looking at this as if it is a irrefutable text that you sacred text that you cannot go against otherwise you can’t say you’re Mason the legend is about inspiring us the best way for

Humanity to learn is through imagination our imagination What would it be like and I’m going to use Lord of the Rings just because uh that’s on the Forefront of my head but if I was is it Aragon King Aragon is that his name yeah okay Ben’s the resident uh uh Lord of

The Rings fan here so if I’m King Aragon like what would that be like to to have lived so much time and life and to live for so long and and to have that experience that he had if you’re familiar with Lord of the Rings like

What was that like and I wish I could be like him or Gandalf or you could pick luk Skywalker I don’t care you know you could pick someone that you can really put yourself in their place and try to be that and that’s what Legend does Legend excites the imagination of what

What if what if I was that person what if this really happened could this really happened and it’s not so much to be like and they say you’re like man well no there’s no way it could happen Jesus never existed well that we don’t know that okay like there’s there’s a

Sources there you can sit there and they say it all you want but like ultim you don’t know that he’s a legend and to some he’s truth but that Legend is what allows us to say well what is it what if what if I could do this and in masonry

We believe in the power of story we believe in allegory which is the story behind the story you know so even if you were to argue and say you know Jesus wasn’t real okay but what’s the story behind the story what is it that inspires me about living such an

Aesthetic life that allowed someone to transcend this Consciousness into a higher Consciousness like what would that be like when you use imagination it allows you to transport out of the mundane into a higher realm where you can see yourself as your better as your your better version so to transform and

Perfect we can transform without knowing it like the subtleties But ultimately if you’re looking for true transformation you’ll know it so the power of Legend is that historical fiction again it’s not that we have to se this part of the story is absolutely true and that one’s

Absolutely not true no it’s it’s the it’s the life behind the story that comes in and Imus you with the imagination to think of a better place a better time a better way of being that allows you to really imagine well I can

Imagine it can I be it can I can I get myself to that point maybe I’ll never reach the Christos but maybe I can get close to it maybe it can come to a better understanding already I’m thinking of something better then you know I’m going to get on whatever social

Platform I’m on right now and see who’s pissing me off at the moment and want to fight with them I mean like they’re just dichotomously so different you know trying to transcend the mundane into something that’s truly um beautiful and and divine in a sense when we look at

Symbol symbol is what allows us to experience that transcendency of the The Legend So when we look at symbol for those who heard my seminar last year about the symbols and exactly what it meant remember symb symbols have their own intrinsic meaning when we look at symbology that happened in the 1800s

They took that out and they said symbols can mean whatever you want that’s not true that’s just not true symbols have an intrinsic meaning and if we really look at what those meanings are then we can really understand what it’s trying to say so symbols are trying to convey

Something that can’t be done through the written language through being verbal it’s something that goes deeper into the body and you can say say it’s the Olympic brain if you want to go in there where you know communication there you can’t use language because nothing is communicable in The Reptilian Brain you

Can say it’s a spiritual body that impacts it doesn’t necess the details aren’t what’s to be you know die on it’s the idea that we can all sit and Lodge together again with our various belief systems and try to understand the inspiration of the legend through the the symbols as they’re trying to

Communicate them the symbols are the language that allows the legend to breathe with imagination and the ritual is the collection of those symbols and is the encasement of that legend that allows for it to be delivered to you and me as the practitioners to better understand to better interface to better emulsify

Our being with its theistic magic so all of this is important for transformation now we talk about transformation and Perfection for those who are familiar with um the Western esoteric tradition or Alchemy they’ll automatically think usually transmutation goes straight with alchemy that we’re taking base metal into into gold and that’s not

Necessarily a wrong thought by any means but it’s it’s bigger than that like Alchemy is one sliver of this the occult Sciences it’s one prong of three you have you know Alchemy astrology and kabala you have all three of those together create an experience so when we talk about transmutation there’s so many

Different levels that you can transmute um that it’s not going to all happen at once and it’s not going to all happen in the same way and the way that transmutation and Perfection can be achieved is through Legend symbol and ritual because the legend is an imagination the symbol is the

Communication and the ritual is the magic and coming all together that’s what lifts you out of your Consciousness and puts you in a higher space so that you can hopefully achieve that Consciousness you know higher Consciousness forever or permanently if you will that is what it means to

Perfect sorry lose my voice all right number nine we’re almost done there’s 10 of them you guys have held in great keep hanging in there this one is very unique um though I don’t know if we’re the only obedience that has it we seem to be the

One that really focuses on it the freedom of thought speech and action when used in the pursuit of wisdom so when when I work with s that are just coming into masy or I’m tasked to study with them they are free to think whatever they find to be appropriate my job isn’t

To be like well this is the truth and this is what it has to be my job is to find to give them the Baseline information meaning okay let’s talk about this particular symbol if you look at the history and the context of this symbol and the religious context this is

What it has meant over the last Millennia you need to go and you need to find how how that impacts you and what that does to your understanding excuse me I’m about to sneeze too so it’s all sorts of fun noises um so when we look at this this

Is extremely important I’m going to give you something to start off with but it’s your job to take that where you need to take it everything has its meaning you have to find it now when we looked at this the freedom of thought speech and action when in

Pursuit of wisdom yeah you have absolute freedom when you’re searching for wisdom but if you’re going to be there’s the term antimonic if you’re going to be unbrotherly and be awful to someone like no you don’t have the freedom to do that like you can’t sit there and be like you

Know forgive me brother Patrick but I hate you brother Patrick you’re a terrible human being like no you don’t have the right to do that it’s not you have absolute freedom freedom is a privilege that those who understand its use can truly use it wisely um for some people it’s a curse

Because they think they can do whatever they want and then they get really upset when they find out that no you can’t there’s you know spiritual society and physical Society has its rules so that all of us can interact and get the maximum experience out of it so when we

Look at this even though you we have are highly disciplined in our body the way we sit the way you know I talk to brother Patrick or brother Benjamin and there’s a certain tone I use there’s certain address I use that’s all very very um scripted

But how I think and how I feel is mine and mine alone and as a a freem Mason you should cultivate that it isn’t so much to uh do a feedback loop where you’re going back into you know positive feedback loop where you’re telling yourself over and over that you’re

Writing this and that and that it’s more for you to go and explore like well I don’t know she brought up nihilism I don’t really know what nihilism is she said it was the enemy of Freemasonry so I should go look that up and see what

That is and see if I even agree with her or maybe she has the interpretation wrong and and I could have a conversation with her about it and show her what I found and we could have this interaction and you know come to a different idea it’s Masonic dialectics

If you will two points coming together to create a third new idea and so when we look at this this is the most important thing is that you have the freedom to pursue wisdom in whatever avenues that may be but you still have the discipline of the spiritual hierarchy so there’s another Paradox

Coming in to um shape and mold and make it a little bit confusing because it’s like how do I have this freedom of uh you know Pursuit but yet I belong to the discipline of the spiritual hierarchy and I think if you really study what the word Freedom means you’ll find that our

Modern connotation isn’t quite really what Freedom means um and it’s not the same as Liberty Liberty is a you know more of a Judicial word than Freedom itself and so when we look at this this is really important this is why earlier I said you’ll never never you should

Never should never hear someone say well you’re wrong and in fact I actually heard someone at one time say you’re wrong and the master of the L said we don’t say that here that’s not how we we talk to people and they adjusted and said well I don’t agree with you because

Of XY and it was completely fine and that keeps the unity together that’s why we can talk about religion and politics and Universal Chason without getting all busted up into you know fights and and horrible situations we have t i mean I have sat down was someone who believes

Completely opposite than me in political understanding and it was wonderful and you know I still probably didn’t agree with that person but doesn’t mean that they are less than and not on their own way of trying to find something it doesn’t mean that I have the whole truth

And so there’s a lot of I guess a takeaway from this especially this Landmark is that there’s a lot of intellectual humility spiritual humility understanding not self-abasement like oh how could I ever know anything but more of saying I don’t know know everything and any person I’m in a room with knows

Something I don’t and probably knows a lot of things I don’t and if I have a conversation with them that’s built in Civility and genuine love even if it’s just a a stranger I will probably maximize my experience with them and I will leave an indelible Mark of you know

Just Good Will and good faith between that person I may never see them again but at least my one interaction with them in this lifetime was positive and I know that sounds very po I know that sounds very you know super Fantastical but really again it goes back to

Imagination ritual inspires us to see things which have yet to be created it helps us Vision what the divine plan can be and it helps us understand our place within it so that freedom of thought like if you came to me and said well you know um brother Kathleen asked about

Someone being particular type of atheism you know a gnostic and um can I go read this book sure go go read whatever book there’s no book I would ever tell you not to read the only thing I would ever say is don’t read a higher degree don’t read that you want

To save that until you’re ready to go you know once you’ve taken that degree you can go study it like we don’t that’s why we are very conservative about what we talk about in masonry we don’t divulge our rituals because the ritual helps you get ready for the next step

And if you aren’t ready for the next step that next ritual is not going to have the impression it needs to have upon you and that’s not to say that every time you come into contact the ritual even if you’re ready that you’re like man that was awesome there’s times

I’ve had ritual where I’m like I I have questions and I need to understand and I need to sit with this and I need to talk to my betters and I need to see where this is at it is a process of continual growth and so we have to have that open

Intellectual humility that spiritual humility to say I always have something to learn and that’s why someone who says you know I’m a dieh hard whatever uh religious or spiritual tradition will will say we’re probably not for you because because it’s not so much someone’s trying to challenge you to

Defeat you but they’re going to challenge you and say well why do you believe that well why because they’re trying to understand it or they’re going to say well I don’t believe that because of this this and this and are you ready to receive that because sometimes you’re

Not and that makes it hard for a very brotherly interaction the last the last Landmark which is not of the same vain but it is one of the most important ones the last and crowning landmark of all is this that these marks can never be changed nothing can be

Subtracted from them nothing can be added to them not the slightest modification can be made in them as they were received from the founders the Freemasons is B the Freemason is bound by the most solemn obligations of Duty to transmit them to their successors this was a little bit

Different um in that when we look at this someone might say well I you know I really don’t think number six fits or number three fits or whatever we should really augment it the problem problem is is that when we look at Antiquity with a modern lens we have no context of why

Those things are written the way they are and we tend to make changes that really are changes in the name of progress but really are in the name of ignorance um I have told this story before so if you’ve heard me I apologize for the repeat but there it’s not one

Specific story there’s a few unfortunately there’s a few of them in there um I remember when I was first made a Mason and I was talking to um someone who was higher up in masonry and they were dealing with a particular dilemma um and I was like well this is

What I think you know I don’t think that person asked my opinion but I gave it anyway and I was like we should change this and this and this and this you know and this is how it should be and the brother who had been in masonry for

Decades um was like they took me in good temper you know they were like H you know like young Padawan just you know calm the sit down relax this is how we’re going to do it and I was like I don’t agree well you

Know first off I don’t know if it was my place to disagree but like I said they were very well-tempered and uh many years later I looked back at that one particular situation that I had in mind and I realized how absolutely wrong I was and how absolutely like I

Was just emphatic that I was right at the time I don’t know if it’s the arrogance of my ignorance or or of Youth I don’t know where it came from but I looked back and I realized that I didn’t have the context or the wisdom that my

Elder had and that if I had if if that person had taken my advice and done what I said it would have been a very damaging situation and when we look at landmarks it’s very very tempting to change things because it doesn’t fit the modern lens not everything in modernity

In any period of time is always right there’s things to be looked at there are things to be reviewed there are things to be discussed but to just to change it because it doesn’t fit the modern definition is not a good enough answer and it’s not a good enough reason and so

We look at these landmarks and we say we’re not touching them cuz nowhere does it say that if if you’re of this gender or of this Faith or this like you can’t be here it’s all inclusive if you look at it now there are people who don’t

Match these but we’re not saying like look you can’t join it’s them who’s saying I I don’t fit that there’s there’s a directionality in there that I think is very important so when we look at these landmarks we have to be careful that we don’t go in with a modern scalpel and

Try to dissect it a mummy that is 2,000 years old there’s an Antiquity there’s a place for it and um I’m gonna really out myself here I was watching the crown the last season and uh forgive me for the reference but I thought that the the script was really good there’s a part

Where Queen Elizabeth II is looking at her household and seeing reviewing the different um different positions that are out there and she talks to the Prime Minister Tony Blair and she says not always is the answer modernity there’s many times that Antiquity is the right answer and I just thought what a

Profound statement because you know in my youth as a Mason I just thought that my answer was right because I was Modern and I you know I knew what I was talking about when really there’s a whole history that I have neglected that existed before I was even born and so

When we look at these landmarks there is that itch to change them instead of having that itch to understand and that’s where we really really stand by this uh landmark number 10 was this is what they are this was passed down to Through the Ages this is what they’re

Going to be and if if you don’t like them that’s fine you don’t have to join no one saying you have to join so there is that freedom and if you don’t like them and you have joined you can still leave no one’s going to Bar the door

Shut so you can’t can’t escape so those are the 10 landmarks of universal comry if you want to see them they are on our website here um I just copied and paste the 10 out of the the website so you can go back and you can review them if

You’re dying for a good question did meditate up Pond for you know excuse me days on End hours on end you have a whole list of landmarks to see if you really if that’s something that you really parallel with or if it’s something that you Buck I’m going to stop share here you

Can also if you’re more interested in um looking at what Mackie had to say hadit 25 landmarks they’re very technical I have them in this presentation if we ever went to it but it’s like you know modes of recognition Judicial Systems it’s very technical what Universal comry does um

It it respects the spiritual landmarks more than it does like the judicial like it definitely respects judicial but it’s not saying like they’re so important they’re going to be our 10 landmarks these are the 10 philosophic spiritual and religious landmarks that that create the space in the universe that says this

Is universal comry and there’s we have a Judicial System that’s Masonic we have a bunch of other stuff that’s you know Masonic but this is really at the heart because that’s what landmarks are just another it’s another way of saying first principles these are the first philosophic and spiritual principles of universal coing

Um that is the end of my presentation if there are any comments or questions I would love to hear them um any thoughts to be Shar I’d like to open the floor at this time uh brother Danielle makes the statement to me she says but to say we

Can’t change because we’ve always done it this way is to deny Evolution and that is the Paradox of it all um you know to say we can’t change it because that’s the way it’s done you know there’s that is it the home the lotto is that what it is the lottery

Maybe some you know you don’t know what I’m talking about um I think it’s the lottery where uh where they talk about how you know they have a lottery in a town and maybe you’re familiar with this story and um that everyone draws a number and one

Number gets picked and that person who got picked gets put in the middle of the Town Square and everyone stones that person to death and then they say why did you do that and they say well that’s always because it’s always been done that way we don’t know um the difference

Between that story and the landmarks not changing is that one is done in ignorance and one is done in understanding just to Stone someone because that’s the tradition of your your your town or your country like that’s ignant to understand why something is done may have a better

Understanding of how it came about it also can help you understand if there’s been any digressing from that Landmark perhaps the story started out that they didn’t Stone someone and it just got changed over time like that perennial wisdom how it’s been fractured over time and it’s been changed to mean different

Things here and there so when we look at the landmarks you have to study them you have to come to understand them and understand the context in which they’re made to better understand how they should be applied and that that way you can understand whether or not there has

Been um a change in them that is not um is not appropriate or has been a misunder understanding or if there’s been a violation because landmarks that are wholesome will always be wholesome no matter what moral landscape We Stand upon brother Christine thank you brother Benjamin The Lottery by Shirley

Jackson thank you brother Katie um you’re muted again um I think I muted you hold on that was my fault Patrick can you thank you there we go okay um I was thinking about the presentation and I was wondering if maybe you could explain a little bit more about why

They’re Unwritten the landmarks are Unwritten because they’re so profound and so important that um they’re they’re left for us to um discover and research and and understand for ourselves but why aren’t they more prominent in our sah and in our in our literature so why are they written down

Versus why they’re not written down is that your question brother Christine okay um you know I don’t know the answer of why they say you can’t why you can’t write them down I I have my interpretation of that and I want to just take it as such hope you’d go and

Find the answer um when I look at it not being written there’s a couple things that come to mind first are first off excuse me when they’re Unwritten ironically so the best thing that stays in anyone’s mind is the oral Traditions so when we write stuff down

Our brain is not being challenged to keep information so our information becomes less and less accurate um and you have interpretations so I mentioned that Universal co-masonry has three different languages that it operates at this time well we have to translate so I say the mother language because that’s

The only one that I the word I can think of but Universal starts in English and then we translate it out to Spanish Portuguese well there’s translations okay well it’s like the Bible or any book that gets translated you have things that get you know changed in um

Context and and there’s a word that exists in one language that doesn’t exist in the other language so how do you encapsulate the spirit that you know so you start getting into a lot of it suggestion and interpretation and also you have room full of people with

Opinions and bias like we all have bias I don’t think that’s what the word meant I think it means this you know if I use this word then it will drive my point this way but if I use that word it goes towards that person’s point so it

Changes the meaning so when you look at written it’s very easy to corrupt it just because and it’s not even that like when I say corrupt it’s not evil like it’s just by nature of translations and interaction look at language who’s in charge of creation of language Humanity

You know words that meant one thing at one time mean a totally different word today or meaning today rather like U to peruse peruse doesn’t mean the same thing it originally meant so when we read a landmark and it uses Old English we’re going to use the

Modern English to understand it so it changes its information so when we look at it that translation is one of the things that can corrupt it pretty easily um when we look at it also being written the one thing too is that um it can really come out like the Ten

Commandments for lack of a a metaphor because it’s so written in stone like it’s written in stone it can’t be changed in education we always joke like if you laminate something it was like putting it into the Ten Commandments once it was laminated you could never

Change from it because that’s what it is and it’s when you write something down it can never change like it is what it is and so yes it’s like well you shouldn’t write them down because it can become dogmatic um it means a certain thing it has to believe a certain way

That is my understanding I to be very honest I would have to look more and more into it and I hope someone here does and gives me some information because I would love to hear why they said that that Macky was the first one to um bring it into the written

Word is there any other questions or comments um Mark says um your stressing and referencing beliefs makes it sound like it’s just another prescriptive religion feels like it Mark I have to be very honest I don’t know quite what you mean by that so if you want to put some

Clarifying comment in that I could better address that and Maya says they need to be discovered like um tra and Buddhism and brother Maya I’m not very familiar with um that particular aspect of Buddhism so we’ll we’ll have to talk one one on that what that means but it

Is something you do have to discover it is something that you do have to uncover for yourself um revealed through initiation yes thank you brother Maya for clarifying that it this Maser is a very active path which I think you can take this down to the very basics of it

The studs of it all is that it’s very active so if you’re looking to unzip your brain and have this poor crap into it like that’s not the way to do it you need to really be active in it ask a lot of questions I’ve had a lot of questions

And I’m like that is the most bizarre question but I’m glad they asked because that they had a question and we need to ask it and we need to answer it and if we can’t answer it we need to go find the answer so it’s very very active so

With that being said um we’re going to stay on for another five minutes or so to see if there’s any questions that are off the beaten path from what we’ve been talking about today I want to thank everyone for joining us here at the Masonic seminar especially brother

Patrick brother Benjamin and those who are joining us on the various platforms that we’ve been streaming on and next month um I have I don’t know if I can get brother Matias in in the studio here I’ve been trying it’s been uh he’s been evasive but we’re trying to get

Political uh theory of freemasony keep your fingers crossed we can get that on the docket for February um if not keep an eye out for that email you’ll see the topic and we will talk about something different but just equally as important have a wonderful evening or morning if

You’re coming in from the Philippines and I look forward to seeing you at our next seminar

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