THE NEXT STEP?

Once you´ve been raised to the sublime degree of a M.M., you´re very likely to be wondering: “now, what?”. All the more so if you are a “masonry addict”, as I like calling myself, due to the volume of information I have always tried to take in, and/or if you take part of Masonry in a country where the Ancient and Accepted Rite is more widely spread.

My intention in this short article is not to talk anyone into or out of doing anything! It is much more the case of sharing my thoughts, experiences and mistakes since I´ve been made a M.M.!

Even to the “non-masonic world” in a country like Brazil, the concept of 33 degrees is something that most people who know just very few things about freemasonry are already aware of. So much so, that it is not rare to bump into someone, who knowingly I am a mason, will ask me: “what is your degree”? (perhaps better than being asked about my “pedigree”)

Such a question goes to show that both to the Masonic and non Masonic world in a country like Brazil “degrees” are regarded as something rather important, and distinguishing when compared to other masons… I couldn´t disagree more… and I´ll tell you why…

When I was first made a M.M. in less than a month I was already in one of the English side degrees (Mark), as well as the Brazilian Ancient and Accepted trying to climb the ladder straight up to the 33^rd!

It did not take too long to realise I was wasting my time with the number of things I was doing, and perhaps that volume of (side) degrees would only inflate someone´s ego, and lead to nights out with friends or excuses to be away from home! As none of the above appealed to me I soon dropped a few of these commitments and decided to understand more deeply how this system works!

Of course, there are people who might say I am only saying this because I haven´t got a certain degree in the Ancient and Accepted or if I had got into this or that side degree I would actually love it and so on… It might be true, but I doubt it…

Talking to London Grand Ranks and senior masons, with over 40 years of Craft, most of them would say: “do as the ritual says: Freemasonry is formed by three craft degrees plus the Royal Arch and that´s it!” I am currently a proud active member of Mark and RAM as well, and I have no intentions of dropping them… but certainly these plus the R.A. are more than enough (at least for me).

In London, because Royal Arch, or Chapter is always attached to your Craft Lodge, we actually try to “inform” a newly made M.M. that he will be more than welcome into our chapter in our next meeting or so… for one reason or another more senior PMs in our District seem to prefer to leave that “hanging in the air”…

With time and the right guidance I am sure every new M.M. will find his way around and choose the right “next step” to be taken!

WHERE THE INSPIRATION CAME FROM

I would like to share with you just a couple of websites that were my first inspiration to sort of change the route of this blog for this next year:

http://www.in-the-chair.co.uk/


http://www.masonic-lodge-of-education.com/preparing-for-the-east.html


http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-12/p-51.php

STARTING TO USE THE BLOG PROPERLY - A LONG WAY TO BECOME A MASON!

Dear brothers and Friends,

When I started this blog in mid-late 2016, my initial idea was to write about "masonic music" and the role of an organist in a masonic Lodge...

The thing is, my masonic career took such a turn last year that the blog has been sitting for nearly a year and now I've been "inspired", for the want of a better word, to resume it in rather a different way...

I´ll start my masonic introduction from the latest facts, I had to stop playing last year because the M.E. in August 2016 invited me to be his J.W. during his year in the chair... that just thrilled me, as I regarded myself a few steps closer to the chair and consequently closer to being able to fully devote my masonic time to being an Organist in Lodge...

But, first things first, let me try to introduce myself more properly, like a gentleman should do...

I am Brazilian, although sometimes I seem to feel closer to the "English walk of life, or the English Way" than "towards the country whence I derived my birth and infant nurture" I lived in England for a couple of years in the 1990's and have been a teacher, educator, interpreter and businessman for over 20 years now...

When I was a kid the word "Freemasonry" gave me goosebumps and was always followed by a "hush hush" "you must not ask about that..." by some adult... One of my uncles was a mason under one of the regular Brazilian Grand Lodges.

Needless to say that the more I heard I shouldn´t ask questions about it, the more curious I got... Eventually, already in my adulthood, I was teaching at my school, and as I proposed a change of time to a certain student he replied he couldn´t make it that day, as he had to attend his "Lodge"... being aware what a "Lodge" generally meant, I immediately asked: "Are you a mason, then?", One must bear in mind that by and large such a question to a Brazilian freemason is rather offensive, as a lot of mystery surrounds the "recognition system" in this country... but being unaware of such facts I went on to ask: "would it be too hard for me to become one?"...

Certainly for an English Mason such questions wouldn´t be much of a problem. On the other hand, for a Brazilian mason they might be taken as rather offensive... I was lucky that my student was quite open and relaxed, and we had a nice chat... I ended up being invited to a "White Table" meeting, which just raised my interest in the craft...

For one reason or another for around 10 years I was never invited to become a member of any of the four Lodges around where I live... I did not know, but apparently my initial "thunderstorm like" interest raised some suspicion amongst elder members as to why I wanted to become a Mason so badly!

It was only in 2011 that I was finally initiated into a Brazilian Lodge, which, by the hand of TGAOTU worked with the English Ritual (Emulation) in Portuguese!

That Lodge was experiencing a few problems and I ended up joining another Lodge just prior to being made a M.M. By then I had already been visiting Freemasons' Hall in London for a couple of years, but still did not fully comprehend the English system of Provinces and Districts! It was only after my return from a trip to London that I came across a new book for sale in a masonic bookshop, which talked about the History of English Freemasonry in Brazil...

I then googled the names of some major officers and finally managed to ring one of them, and practically invited myself to attend the installation of that which was to become my Mother Lodge...

It did not take long before I was invited to join the Lodge, and just a year later I was a J.D. and also the Organist when I was not doing floor work... FINALLY NOW I WAS A MEMBER OF AN ENGLISH-SPEAKING LODGE FROM AN ENGLISH DISTRICT!

Certainly I took advantage of my annual trips to London to immerse myself in Freemasonry and continuously improve my skills! 

In London I play for a number of Lodges when I am there, currently I am the J.W. of my Lodge and at the moment we are just over 4 weeks away from the installation of the new M.E., and I´d like to invite you to join me in a sort of "diary" of my masonic life over the coming year!