1. Ancient Secrets

Recent discoveries uncovered evidence of lost Homo Sapiens-Sapiens civilizations that have been kept secret for centuries. Thousands of archeological finds have been pieced together revealing the use of intricate geometry and advanced sciences by people previously described as merely hunter-gatherers. Ice-age languages pre-dating Sumerian cuneiforms by thousands of years trace a steady progress of astronomical knowledge and applications. Ancient scientific symbols exhibit understanding of physics, geology, chemistry, geography, mathematics and geometry pre-dating the Greek masters, and prove we have been highly-developed, introspective problem solvers for longer than we imagined. A vast network of public utilities for surviving the ice-ages were improved by later cultures thriving in warmer climates; all indicate a never-ending worldwide human interest in, and constant evaluation of, the heavens. Navigational cartography and symbol migrations indicate world ocean voyages in distant ages past. Cyclopean masonry and building skills existing tens of thousands of years ago (at places such as Baalbek, Lebanon) cannot be replicated by today’s engineers or machinery. The world wonders at how ancient surveyors measured their architecture and observatories, calculated latitudes of the Earth (time), and mapped the celestial sphere. Yet, as by example, the very same sun, moon, planets and stars remain a consistent benchmark.

2. Building Upon the Foundations

Sufficient are the worries of the day, but our understanding of today relies upon our understanding what has come before. Symbols and languages in use today are built on ancient common ancestry. The more we learn from our own history, the more we avoid repeating disasters from our past, and the better we are able to build our future upon past discoveries. As men and women like us prepare the world for the next generation, realize we have been improving our utilities over the course of a Great Year (one complete procession of equinoxes, or 26,000 solar years). For these very reasons, we recorded the migrations of tetra-fauna onto cave walls, medicines for healing onto stone, bone, and ivory, and seasons of life into the ecliptic. Great surveyors and masons of history used the stars and planets to measure time and place. Their discoveries are the foundation for the unlimited frontiers of human development.

3. Heritage of Providence

If necessity is the mother of invention, providence must therefore be its father. The ethics of ‘women and children first’ have been our companion all the way; there is no doubt that love has also. Childbirth and childcare remain constants as we continue around the Sun. Industries such as textiles, healthcare, education, architecture, and trade have always been necessary. Daily food, shelter, and clothing perpetually charge us with temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice. The needs of newborns motivate vast improvements in utilities for life on Earth, and these acts of charity require hard labor. Earliest records tell the stories of survival: how women provide language and textiles for their charges as men battle the elements for their clan’s survival. Our human race survives ice ages, comet strikes, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and droughts, in any climate nature dishes out. These are the foundations of existence that give meaning and purpose to the craft of building our world.

4. Constructive Achievement

However, in addition to the rages of natural disasters, wars kill millions of our human race. New technologies have created machines of mutually-assured destruction, and our fear of their power deters us from repeating their use. The last World War ended when we shocked ourselves by using atomic power as a weapon. Japan has equated the power and fear of their latest natural disaster with that of what they remember from August 9, 1945. Have we finally ensured our demise after a Great Year of scientific achievement, or do we care enough to hope for an alternative ending? Atomic power should be feared as a weapon of mass destruction, but like a stone hammer, its power can be channeled and used for constructive achievement. Electricity and fossil fuel powered our engines last century, but what will power us further in this next procession of the equinoxes?

5. Human Advantage

We stand in awesome wonder on the shore, and stare into the greatest ocean we have ever seen. Ancient symbols illustrate our history of it, we have built our temples as allegories to it, we have measured our time and world by it, and we have planned our survival around it. We have the maps and the formulas to explore its heights, its widths, and its depths. We have an inherent ability to choose a direction, chart our course, and accomplish our goal. Yes, we now have the engineering and technology to build the ultimate machine, to build and operate the ultimate engine, powered by an unlimited fuel supply, to survey this ocean. Acceleration and deceleration is all we need to traverse any light-years distance we want, and that formula was provided to us several generations ago (if M=C, then t=0, Lorentz). Pioneers are watching their lives pass before seeing the advantage they have provided realized. Therefore, our generations stand at the threshold of the next “small step for Man” enabled for our next “giant leap for Mankind”- the ultimate human endeavor. So here is my question, will we take the advantage? With knowledge of our past comes the responsibility for our future, to build on that which we have been given, to follow the example of our heritage of providence for constructive achievement, and to strive to perfect our own once-upon-a-time-to-be.

The CHALLENGE is back for another year!
As of April 12, 2011, the official count stands at:

North Bay Bees              59
San Francisco Sluggers 25
South Bay Bombers       19
East Bay Aces               14
Delta Dogs                      1
Sacramento Cyclones     1

Just $20 buys a mitt for a deserving boy or girl in the
Junior Giants program. Let’s make this year a three-peat victory for the kids!

Check the count and make your donation online at
www.Masons4Mitts.org

Campaign concludes on Masons Night at AT&T Park on Monday, September 12.
More details about Masons Night tickets coming soon!

Let’s show ‘em what Masons can do…

I congratulate Bros. Maves, Rodgers, & Budding PM, on receiving their 50 year pins. I have three more to present and will make arrangements to do them soon, as they will be presented at the Brother’s homes because they can’t come to the lodge for health reasons.

Our annual daylight degree went very well with five lodges participating. Each had a part and did them well. Our newest Master Mason, Bro. Richard Maddux received a great degree. Thanks again to the 129th and 131st Districts for their participation. The lunch provided by the Junior Warden and his crew was also very good.

March was a good month as we also gained 3 new candidates and two affiliations, but sadly two Brothers were called to that celestial lodge above. We initiated 3 new brothers and have 2 new petitions.

Coming in April we will be having a Building Fund Breakfast on April 17 from 8 AM to 12 Noon so please come out and support this, as the proceeds are for the lobby renovations. Any one wanting to contribute to the Lobby Building Fund may do so by sending a donation to the lodge secretary and mark it for the Lobby Renovation Fund. The donation will only be used for that project.

We will have the Hiram Award and Dinner on April 28 for Bro. Albert Lawson PM. Dinner costs $10.00 and is at 6 PM and the Award presentation at 7:30 PM.

Please attend Lodge. If you need a ride, call, and we will see that you get here and home again safe and sound. Fraternally, Barry Hughes, Worshipful Master Naval Lodge #87

“As a man is initiated and becomes an Entered Apprentice, his status within the lodge and among his brothers has changed. He has been accepted for further training.  His coach, like the Master Mason of old, is bound to teach him, by precept and example, what makes a good mason.

His first duty is of course, to be bound by his obligation to the lodge.  The burdens and responsibilities are not yet his but he must be taught that with knowledge comes responsibility and he should prepare himself for it.  As knowledge can only be gained by effort, so he must acquire the patience to persevere and the will to succeed.  Each man who has gone before has trod the same difficult path and, in the learning , made himself a better man.

There are basic virtues explained in this degree and set forth in the Monitor which should have been his practice before his application was made. We consider him doubly bound to observe the uses the twenty-four inch gauge and the common gavel, to act always as though clothed in a lambskin apron, to reverently contemplate on the Great Architect who has blessed him, to bear always in mind the Plumb, Square and Level and to view his own Masonic experience as a symbolic stone or Ashlar being formed to better fit into the structure of Masonry.

The Entered Apprentice is bound to his own lodge.  He can only visit another lodge in the company of a Master Mason from his own lodge and then only for meetings held on the First Degree.  He can only withdraw from the lodge if a change of residence removes him from the jurisdiction. The greatest privilege extended him is that of being taught by one man; his Coach, who can best express Masonry’s man-to-man friendship and brotherhood.

He cannot receive charity, nor can vote in lodge , since he is not yet a member, he may still be rejected, after objection by a member, investigation and report to the lodge and a vote by a lodge to determine the validity of the objection. He may be tried, if charges of un-Masonic conduct are brought against him, and suspended or expelled as a result.

The Candidate is still a Candidate until he has advanced.  His eagerness for advancement should never displace his eagerness for knowledge, and the long and seemingly tedious period of instruction in this Degree will take on new meaning if out of it comes a broader grasp of the fundamental truths of our institution.”

-Source: Handbook for Candidates Coaches

Congratulations to Bros. Crudo, Lau, and Go for being initiated into Freemasonry as an Entered Apprentice Mason.

Bro. Leo Guison Senior Warden

The Daylight Degree saw one of our own, Bro. Richard Maddux, raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason, with the combined efforts of five lodges. Congratulations Richard!!! The meal for this event was quite the feast to prepare. Sarah, as expected, designed a well-received meal. Bro. Bill and Suzie Hems were immensely involved with the food preparation. We thank both of you very, very much for the effort you put into this very special event.

The potluck meal for April’s stated meeting will feature spaghetti with a meatless sauce and meatballs on the side. I remind all that this is a potluck meal, so please bring your favorite side dish to share with us.

Family, friends and fraternity. How are they related? How do our friends and family relate to this fraternity? Please tell me your thoughts when you see me or e-mail your thoughts to me.

Fraternally, Bro. Joe Yow Junior Warden

* If you want to help the relief effort in Japan in other ways, please visit the International Red Cross for more information.

The ugly secret of the fraternity in California is despite the new statistics of an increase in new membership, few are completing their degrees, and of those that do , few young men are staying active.

These young guys are hoping to find something intellectually stimulating–hopefully in the form of enlightening discussions and intellectual programs that aspire to a higher level.  Unfortunately, they rarely find  that  and instead, more often than not, see something that looks more like a dysfunctional dinner club.

I reject the argument that guys, especially American guys don’t care for intellectual ideas. In the broader culture, America takes a certain pride in wearing its anti intellectual posture as a badge of distinction, as though real men don’t need to  think because we can do.

Boy, does that beg the question. Do what I might ask?  The answer to  that question can be pretty ugly and not very flattering  if you look to what the broader culture glorifies.  There is, however, a certain beauty in all that superficial, material and shallow hype. When you live in a desert of sand, the ocean has tremendous beauty and power.

I understand why a young person might be looking for a way to bring an elevated awareness to his personal life. Politics and religion have traditionally provided a place for men to commit their energies. But I doubt that the intellectual warriors of the future will  evolve from current political platforms or current religious dogma.  Men that are comfortable in their persons are rarely the men who make the significant contributions to our world.  The space in a young man’s heart, the pit in his stomach, the garden of his soul, needs  authentic meaning and a clarity that speaks of pure truth.

 The philosophical side of Masonry does not sit well with the institutionalized organization that wants conformity and control.  What is particularly aggravating about this state of affairs is that while Masonry is one of the original and largest cell based (decentralized) organizations, our leadership does not allow individual lodges to experiment with new ways of practicing Masonry. It is a failed federal state of affairs. If an organization does not evolve it dies.  This is especially true in the times in which we live as the culture, the technology and the social fabric   changes quickly, if not  exponentially. 

I see Masonry’s dismal picture as a great opportunity to advance a paradigm shift in thinking.  Hopefully this call for reform will not  be suppressed. If your heart cries out like a  REBEL MASON than let your voice be heard.  The future is on your side.

The reason is simple. Masonry is a very revolutionary way of thinking once you move beyond the superficial. The core values and lessons are hard to incorporate into one’s life. It takes discipline of the mind. It takes effort. But the fraternity offers true comraderie for those few who choose this difficult psychological and philosophical journey. Incredible, life changing associations occur. A value driven moral compass that transcends religion and politics  can be yours. What moves you now? Fear? Let Masonry positively shift the paradign of your mind.