by Bro. Orlando R. Murgado MM 20 January 2021
As a new Brother I come before you today, in my first year as Master Mason and in this my first address as Lodge Historian. I’m excited to take part in the work. I’m lifted up by all of you and energized by the charge to delve into our rites, reading old tomes illuminated by Masonic Light and finding the traces of past Brothers in the dust of time. I feel like I’m home here. Weird, on some level, that my conception of home is a dusty basement filled with the reek of old books and covered in cobwebs, but it does feel right to me. And anyway, I think lots of men here have childhood memories of seeking adventure in odd places abandoned to time, old ruins and trash heaps littered with empty beer bottles, cigarette butts and cryptic graffiti; the immortal traces of long forgotten teenage jaunts the older kids had gone on, left for we younger kids to puzzle over and try to learn from. I certainly have my share of such memories, but I haven’t had that feeling of discovery and questing again, until being raised among you.
So I’ve begun to delve into the vast library of Masonic writing, intent on learning all I can, answering my own questions, finding better questions, so on, and then coming to you to share the shiniest tidbits I’ve found. That’s the plan, anyway, but as I said, the library is truly vast. Just orienting oneself in the landscape of Masonic thought and lexicology is daunting. Eventually you find the big tentpoles- William Preston’s Illustrations of Freemasonry, the American complement to that, the originally entitled Illustrations of Freemasonry by Thomas Webb Smith, our own amazing little blue gems of books, Introduction to Freemasonry I II and III by Carl H. Claudy (by the way I’m still looking for a copy of part III, if anyone can point me to it). Ben Franklin printed and published the first Masonic writing in the Colonies, the Constitutions of the Free-Masons of 1734. There’s also the essential Encyclopedia of Freemasonry by Albert G. Mackey. Reading just the above would keep any Brother busy for months, but this is only a piece of all that’s out there. Without including periodic journals restricted to specific rites, podcasts, official Grand Lodge communications, and let’s not even get into the intense conversations we have amongst each other, some of which can plop another 10 1000-page books in your lap, there is immediately something that jumps out at me: how many definitions there are of Freemasonry.
What is Freemasonry? It’s a question I find remarkably common, to be expected among profane writings about our Order, but even in the writings of longstanding Masonic scholars and thinkers. It brings to mind a quote circulated in the world of the contemporary art- it was emblazoned on a billboard in Chelsea some years back- by Patrick Mimran, a French artist, regarding the philosophy behind contemporary art and it says, “Postmodernism is a subject endlessly explained but never understood.”
These are definitions of Freemasonry I have run across so far: a fraternity. Not a secret society but a society with secrets. A mystic, spiritual experience. An initiation, a mythic journey. An esoteric order. Instruction in mysteries. A search for a workable definition of reality. A school which teaches a way of life that has stood the test of time. A moral society. The most moral society.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. Well, how about that…? How many Brothers have had this experience: “Ok, well, I just swore a binding lifelong oath to this Order- what have I gotten myself into….? I better go research this thing and figure out what I’ve done….” For me that was Entered Apprentice. Poring though page after page of books trying to figure it out while working on ritual cypher and memorization. I found 500 different definitions. I’m not gonna even get into the crazy rabbit holes the landscape of the intahwebz is pockmarked with.
After a while I found I was starting to fill in blanks from talking to my brothers. Harder than I’m guessing that was for many brothers who came up before the time of Covid. Covid Class! Talking amongst each other, breaking down the obligations in ritual instruction, just bsing, stuff started to fit. After a while I found even I was defining Freemasonry in conversation- what the heck? That was Fellowcraft. When in Rome…. But seriously- what IS Freemasonry? Now I had 1000 definitions at my fingertips.
I’ve come to find the stupidest answer is actually the most tenable position one can have: What is Freemasonry? Freemasonry is asking what Freemasonry is. That’s the logical answer. The mathematical answer. It’s a math equation. A + B = AB. But that’s pretty dumb, isn’t it? That’s 100% unsatisfactory. To accept that would be to conclude that our brotherhood is purely gratuitous. Arbitrary. And we all know that’s not true. I look around this room and I know- we all know-it’s not true. Not only isn’t it true, each and every one of us can come up with a laundry list of things that prove it isn’t true.
Arriving at that point for me was awakening to Master. The moment where it clicked. Yeah it IS true to define freemasonry as asking what Freemasonry is. Because that’s what we are all united here to do. Audi Vide Tace- Listen Look Be Silent. Silence. Masonic secrecy? Hardly. Silent because we’re thinking. Questioning. Answering questions. Finding better questions. And through all of that there runs one constant: us. Brothers. Every time we come together to hone our craft, every time we enact these age old rites we are becoming the answer to that question.
So it’s right to celebrate every time we pull this off. It’s truly an honor and a mighty undertaking to retrace this palimpsest into the Lodge. To weave this work into the fabric of the universe and to become one with it, and for just a little while, to become one with every brother that has come before us and will come after.
But let’s always keep something in our back pocket for the day a man walks up to us and asks, “What is Freemasonry?” And if you come up with something good let me know.