Volume 67 No. 06
November-December 2020
Robert Burns
- pg 8
SR Application
Calendar
Get your Shirts
pg 6
pg 15
pg 14
2 Seattle Scottish Rite
Scottish Rite Communicator Valley of Seattle
www.seattle-scottishrite.org
SCOTTISH RITE OFFICERS Ill. James D. Cole, 33° Sovereign Grand Commander Ill. Alvin W. Jorgensen, 33° S:.G:.I:.G:, Orient of Washington Ill. Sat Tashiro, 33° Personal Rep. of S:.G:.I:.G:. pr@seattle-scottishrite.org Daniel Southerland, 32° KCCH General Secretary Communicator Editor secretary@seattle-scottishrite.org Gene Ulrich, 32° KCCH Treasurer Ill. Tom Lamb, 33° Almoner PRESIDING OFFICERS Bob Gunther 32°KCCH Master of Kadosh, Consistory Ian Hyde 32°KCCH Commander, Council of Kadosh Jeff Hardin 32° KCCH Wise Master, Chapter of Rose Croix Kirk Stensvig, 32° Venerable Master, Lodge of Perfection Seattle Scottish Rite Center 1207 N 152nd St. Seattle, WA 98133-6213 206 324-3330 voice 206 324-3332 fax
The Communicator (USPS 485-660) is published by the Valley of Seattle, A&A Scottish Rite, 1207 N 152nd St., Seattle, WA 98133-6213, for the benefit of its members, bimonthly and is mailed as a non-profit publication to all members of the Valley of Seattle and to specified other interested parties. $2.00 per member is assessed for the publication of The Communicator. Periodicals postage paid at Seattle, Washington and at additional mailing offices. The material contained within this publication is intended for the education and enjoyment of the members of the Masonic Fraternity and all material published becomes the property of Seattle Valley of Scottish Rite. Postmaster: Send address changes to — The Communicator at 1207 N 152nd St., Seattle, WA 98133-6213.
Seattle Scottish Rite 3
News from the Personal Representative
BEST WISHES FROM THE SEATTLE VALLEY TO ALL MEMBERS AND THEIR FAMILIES FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON AND THE COMING YEAR WITH CONTINUED HEALTH AND HAPPINESS! We hope that This Communicator finds many of the members of the Seattle Valley and their families healthy under these trying conditions. The fall season is upon us with falling temperatures and the threat of snow in the mountains. The COVID still impacts our ability to meet and to enjoy the fellowship unique to our fraternity. The latest correspondence from the Grand Master indicates a possible small step to normalcy in early December 2020 assuming that the state remains at acceptable COVID levels.
We must report, with much sadness, the passing of Bob Dearborn, KCCH, in late November, soon after the release of the last Communicator.. His enthusiasm and love for the Craft and Scottish Rite was an inspiration to all of us. He was instrumental in our resumption of the annual Cap and Ring Ceremony by the rebuilding of the ring, which was key to the ceremony. In early October the Supreme Council informed the valleys that the Ritual Committee of the Supreme Court had developed a ritual to be used in a virtual communications of the Scottish Rite degrees under specific conditions. This step recognized the impact of COVID on the performance of the Scottish Rite degrees in the Southern Jurisdiction. On the last weekend of October and the first weekend of November the Orient of Washington performed the 29 degrees with the SGiG conferring the terminal degrees. Many valleys, including the Seattle Valley participated. Many members of the class of 2020 participated and became Masters of the Royal Secret. We continued our monthly virtual meeting in mid-September and mid-October. The meeting continues to inform the status of the valley from a business and rite perspective. We will continue these meetings and hope you will join us for a few moments of fellowship. Our next virtual meetings will be 17 November. We will not meet in December. The General Secretary will send out meeting particulars with the password on ZOOM. The 2021 trip to Scotland was cancelled. The uncertainties caused by the pandemic was too significant of a hurdle to overcome. We have resumed our EXCOM meetings virtually for the body leaders and key committees. The following EXCOM meeting will be 14 November, because of the conflict with the Virtual Orient Degrees Communications on the weekend of 6-7 November. It is scheduled for 9 AM. The purpose will be plan our program for the remainder of this year and for the early months of 2021. It is important that we prepare ourselves for the performance of the terminal degrees for the Class of 2020 when we get approval. The 2021 officers remain in work at this time and will be released in the upcoming Communicator with installation at the January meeting. The meeting may be virtual depending upon the COVID situation. You are also reminded that our virtual DVD club meetings, hosted by Bob Guild and Tom Lamb, are scheduled for the fourth Wednesday of each month, but the busy holiday season on the last weeks of November and December May preclude their scheduling. Please contact Bob Guild or the General Secretary to be on the contact list for the DVD meetings on 206-324-3330,
4 Seattle Scottish Rite
In addition the meeting of the Eastside Scottish Rite Club (ESRC) has been focusing on the lessons of the degrees of the Scottish Rite and future meetings must also be scheduled through virtual meetings. Please contact Dean Markley, at wdeanm@gmail.com for additional information. The esoteric aspects of Masonry of the Eastside Scottish Rite Club are organized by Ill. Brother Brian Thomas. Please contact him at bjt19@comcast.net for future meetings All Scottish Rite members of the Seattle Valley receive the Communicator, but may miss the fellowship with their fellow members within the valley and find the difficult-travel-miles to-and-from our Shoreline building a major problem. Please attend through the virtual meetings of ZOOM as they are scheduled.
Fraternally, Sat Tashiro 33° Personal Representative of the S:.G:.I:.G:.
Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it calls Light from them and to draw them away from it.
“
― Pike, Albert, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry p.104-5”
Seattle Scottish Rite 5
Greetings All, Hope this finds you all well and doing great. It sure seems like forever that we have been able to meet and enjoy each others fellowship. It looks like it will be a while longer so lets all hang in there. In the mean time I would encourage you all to reach out to your brothers and their families and check on them. See how they are doing, especially the brothers who live alone. Just that few minutes of talking with them will make a huge difference to them and you alike, We just finished up the Orient Virtual Degrees on Nov. 7th. What a great way to see how talented all the valleys are at degrees, even if it was virtual. I send out kudos and accolades to all the Valleys of the Orient for such a great job in all they did. I even learned quite a bit and will remember the lessons taught by all. We know we would rather see the degrees done in our lodges but they were still great to witness. Great Job to All. I would like to send out a huge congratulations to our newest members of Seattle Scottish Rite, we had 11 Brothers joining our great Scottish Rite Valley and look forward to being able to get to know and each of them. We look forward to sitting with you all in lodge and sharing great fellowship as you start your education in the Rite. Remember for the first year you are members your dinners are on us. See you all soon. With that said, Seattle Valley does plan to confer the degrees as soon as we are able to meet in person and are already planning the teams to help, so if you are wanting to get involved just let me know and we will get you in as far as you are able. We love to see so many getting into helping in the degrees and all. We always have room for you and will welcome the help. In this issue is the application for membership as I know you all have brothers who are looking for something more from our great fraternity. Share with them what you are doing in the Scottish Rite. Maybe its that brother who has not come forward in fear they may be intruding? Just talk to them all as you never know who will be your next brother to step forward needing more education. In these times of restrictions and not being able to meet we see so many Masonic happenings around. So if you have not taken advantage of the social media frenzy and fellowship look into them. I have attended quite a few. The best thing about them is they are being done by brothers I may not have regularly contacted. So many districts and jurisdictions are doing great things as well as the Southern and Northern Jurisdictions of Scottish Rite. Reach out to them and enjoy what they have to offer. You will surly be surprised at what they are doing. During this restricted time you also need to keep in mind Early Life Speech & Language. Our Clinicians have been quite busy making sure the kids are still learning and doing great. I have received many letters as of late thanking us all for the generosity of sponsoring so many children with the gift of better speech. It sure fills my heart to read these letters so please remember them as you give this season and know the money you donate goes to a great cause that would not be here if it was not for you all. We always need your help and no gift is to small, everything helps. May you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Very Merry Christmas.
Fraternally, Daniel Southerland, 32° KCCH General Secretary
6 Seattle Scottish Rite
APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP
Valley of Seattle
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America 1207 N 152nd St. Shoreline, WA 98133 Telephone (206) 324-3330 ___________________________, 20______ Today's Date
TO THE OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF: SEATTLE LODGE OF PERFECTION
SEATTLE CHAPTER OF ROSE CROIX
SEATTLE COUNCIL OF KADOSH
SEATTLE CONSISTORY
I THE UNDERSIGNED, DO CERTIFY THE FOLLOWING TO BE TRUE AND CORRECT: MY FULL NAME IS ____________________________________________________________. MY AGE IS ______ YEARS. MY DATE OF BIRTH IS ________ ________ ________. I WAS BORN AT ________________________________________. STATE OF _____. I CURRENTLY RESIDE AT _______________________________________________________________. Address, City and State I HAVE RESIDED THERE FOR ____________ YEARS. MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS _________________________________________________________________________________. MY MAILING ADDRESS IS_______________________________________________________________________________. Street address or Post Office Box City, State, & ZIP MY CURRENT TELEPHONE NUMBER IS (____)_______________________. SPOUSE NAME_______________________. Area Code MY OCCUPATION IS _____________________________. I AM EMPLOYED BY __________________________________. If retired, state previous occupation If retired, enter “Retired” I AM A MASTER MASON IN GOOD STANDING IN _________________________ LODGE NO. ___________ LOCATED AT ___________________________________ , UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE GRAND LODGE OF____________. I WAS RAISED TO THE DEGREE OF MASTER MASON ON __________________________________________________. Date you received third degree PLEASE ENTER YOUR CAP SIZE (IF KNOWN) __________. PLEASE ENTER YOUR RING SIZE (IF KNOWN) __________.
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Seattle Scottish Rite 7 What motivated you to join the Scottish Rite?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please indicate your interest in the following subjects.
Scottish Rite Education
Scottish Rite Ritual
Esoteric Research & Education
Participation is Scottish Rite Degrees
Participation as an officer in one of the four bodies
Participation in Scottish Rite Committees, i.e. Finance, Building, etc.
Americanism (ROTC, JROTC)
Craft Lodge Education
Craft Lodge Ritual
Other ___________________________________________________
THE SUPREME COUNCIL REQUIRES ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES: THE INCULCATION OF PATRIOTISM, RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER, UNDYING LOYALTY TO THE PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. DO YOU APPROVE OF THESE PRINCIPLES? ________ YES ________ NO I HAVE NEVER PREVIOUSLY APPLIED FOR ANY OF THE SCOTTISH RITE DEGREES NOR FOR ANY MEMBERSHIP IN ANY BODY OF SCOTTISH RITE MASONS. (IF PREVIOUSLY APPLIED FOR MEMBERSHIP HERE OR ELSEWHERE, USE THE REVERSE SIDE OF THIS APPLICATION TO PROVIDE FULL DETAILS OF SAID APPLICATION, SPECIFICALLY INCLUDING THE SCOTTISH RITE BODIES TO WHICH APPLICATION WAS MADE, DATES THEREOF, AND RESULTS OF SAID APPLICATION ) I NOW RESPECTFULLY MAKE THIS APPLICATION TO RECEIVE THE DEGREES OF THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY, PROMISING ALWAYS TO BEAR TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE TO THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE THIRTY-THIRD DEGREE OF THE SOUTHERN JURISDICTION OF THE UNITED STATED OF AMERICA. ________________________________________________________________________ (Signature)
PLEASE ATTACH A COPY OF YOUR CURRENT CRAFT LODGE DUES CARD PLEASE FILL IN ALL PROCEEDING BLANKS ================================================================================== RECOMMENDED BY: (TWO SCOTTISH RITE SPONSORS ARE NECESSARY) 1.____________________________________________________________________________________________ Printed Name Signature Address 2. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Printed Name Signature Address RECEIVED _________________________ REFERRED ____________________________ ELECTED __________________ Please include the $200.00 fee for the degrees plus $100.00 dues for the current year with your petition: Total of $300.00 *for petitioners under 31 years of age the fees are $125.00 plus $100.00 dues for the current year: Total of $225.00 The total fees for the 4°-32° degrees of the Scottish Rite include your 14° ring, 32° Scottish Rite hat, Master Craftsman book and materials, and A Bridge to Light: A study in Masonic Ritual & Philosophy.
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8 Seattle Scottish Rite
Robert Burns Freemasonry has no greater name than Robert Burns. If there are those who question his investiture as Poet Laureate of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, owing to the absence of certain documentary evidence, no one denies that he was, and is, the greatest poet of Freemasonry, the singer alike of its faith and its friendship, its philosophy and its fun, its passion and its prophecy. Nay, more; he was the Laureate, of the hopes and dreams of the lowly of every land. Higher tribute there is none for any man than to say, justly, that the world is gentler and more joyous for his having lived; and that may be truly said of Robert Burns, whose very name is an emblem of pity, joy, and the magnetism of Brotherly Love. It is therefore that men love Burns, as much for his weakness as for his strength, and all the more because he was such an unveneered human being. It is given to but few men thus to live in the hearts of their fellows; and today, from Ayr to Sidney, from Chicago to Calcutta, the memory of Burns is not only a fragrance, but a living force uniting men of many lands into a fellowship of Liberty Justice and Charity.
"The Memory of Burns!" cried Emerson, "I am afraid Heaven and earth have taken too good care of it to leave anything to say. The west winds are murmuring it. Open the windows behind you and hearken to the incoming tide, what the waves say of it. The doves perching on the eaves of a stone chapel opposite may know something about it. The Memory of Burns - every man's, every boy's, every girl's head carries snatches of his songs, and they say them by heart; and what is strangest of all, never learned them from a book, but from mouth to mouth. They are the property and the solace of mankind!" In a tiny two-roomed cottage, clay-built and thatch-roofed, on the banks of the Doon, in the district of Kyle, two miles south of the town of Ayr, in Scotland, Robert Burns was born on January 25th, 1759. It was a peasant home, such as he afterward described in "The Cotter's Saturday Night," in which poverty was consecrated by piety, where the father was a priest of faith and the mother a guardian angel of the holy things of life. So far from as schools were concerned, his education was limited to grammar, writing and arithmetic. Later he picked up a little Latin, a smattering of French, and some knowledge of English and classic poets. But he knew the Book of Nature, leaf by leaf, and the strange scroll of the Human Heart, as only the swift insight of genius can read them. At the age of twenty-two Burns was initiated into the Mysteries of Freemasonry, in St. D a vid's Lodge at Tarbolton, July 4th, 1781. Lockhart says that he was introduced to the Lodge by John Rankine. The minute recording his initiation reads: "Sederunt for July 4th. Robert Burns in Lochly was entered an Apprentice. Jo Norman, Master." The second and third degrees were conferred on the same evening, in the month of October following his initiation. Six years later he was made a Knights Templar as well as a Royal Arch Mason in Eyemouth, as under the old Regime the two were always given together. By this time he had won some fame as a poet, and the higher degrees were given him in token both of his fame as a poet and his enthusiasm as a Mason. On July 27th, 1784, Burns was elected Depute Master of St. James Lodge, Tarbolton, a position which he held until St. John’s Day, 1788. He was made an honorary member of St. John Lodge No. 22, Kilmarnock, on October 26th, 1786. Major William Parker, the Master of St. John Lodge, became a great friend of Burns, and subscribed for thirty-five copies of the first edition of his poems. He is the “Willie” in the song “Ye Sons of Auld Killie” (a contraction of Kilmarnock) composed and sung by Burns on the occasion of his admission as an honorary member of St. John Lodge:
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"Ye Sons of Auld Killie, assembled by William, To follow the noble vocation; Your thrifty old mother has scarce such another, To sit in that honored station. I've little to say, but only to pray, As praying's the ton of your fashion; A prayer from the muse, you may well excuse, "Tis seldom her favorite passion. Ye powers who preside, o're the wind and the tide, Who mark each element's border; Who formed this frame with beneficent aim, Whose sovereign statute is order; Within this dear mansion may wayward contention, Or withered envy ne're enter; May secrecy round be the mystical bound, And Brotherly Love be the center. The minutes of this meeting concluded as follows: "Robert Burns, Poet, from Mauchline, a member of St. James, Tarbolton, was made an Honorary Member of this Lodge." "(Sgd.) Will Parker. This was the first Lodge to distinguish Burns with the designation "Poet," and to honor him with honorary membership. Besides being a faithful and enthusiastic attendant upon the meetings of his own Lodge, Burns was a frequent visitor at Lodge when away from home. It is said that, with a very few exceptions, all his patrons and acquaintances were members of the Fraternity. Burns is described at this time as nearly five feet ten inches in height, and of a form agile as well as strong; his high forehead shaded with black, curling hair, his eyes large, dark, full of bright intelligence, his face vividly expressive. His careless dress and untaught manners gave an impression of coarseness at first, but this was forgotten in the charm of his personality, and his face in repose had a calm thoughtfulness akin to melancholy. Full of fun and fire, affable and the best of good company, his superior mind did not make him supercilious, and he loved more than all else, a festival that was half frolic and a feast where joy and good will were guests. Alas, drinking was a habit in the Scotland of those days, to a degree we can hardly imagine, as much in the Church as in the Lodge; and it made the bitter tragedy of Robert Burns. Truth obliges us to admit that his moral failure was early and pitiful, due alike to his environment and to a fatal frailty of which made him fitful, unstable, and a prey to every whim of fancy and of passion. It is an awful risk to be endowed with the genius of a Burns; it digs deep pitfalls for the man to whom it is given. Yet, if in his later years he was a degraded man of genius, he was never a man of degraded genius. The poison did not enter his song. Allan Cunningham was right when he said: "Few men had so much of the Poet in them, and few poets so much of the man; the man was probably less pure than he ought to have been, but the poet was pure and bright to the end." So, and naturally so, men are willing to hide with a veil of charity the debris of character scattered along the starry path of Burns. On reading his poems Byron exclaimed: "What an antithetical mind! Tenderness, roughness, delicacy, coarseness, sentiments, sensuality; dirt and deity - all mixed up in one compound of inspired clay!" But that might pass for a description of mankind in general, and of Burns in particular. If Burns was a sinner he was in that akin to ourselves, as God knows, a little good and a little bad, a little weak and a little strong, foolish when he thought he was wise, and wise, often, when he feared he was foolish. So we may give Burns the charity which he prayed for others: Then at the balance let's be mute, We can never adjust it; What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted.
10 S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e
By the same token, no great poet whose name is linked with our Craft ever owed more to Freemasonry, or gave more to it. More intimately than any other he was identified with its life, its genius and its ideals. Its teachings moved his thought; its spirit inspired his song; its genius nurtured that love of freedom and Fraternity which he set to everlasting music. So much is this true, that it remains a marvel to this day how Shairp could have written a biography of Burns without once mentioning his membership in the Craft. In the gentle air of Freemasonry he found refuge from hardship and heaviness of spirit; and its fellowship served to shelter him from the poisoned arrows of petty bigots who were unworthy to untie his shoes - men of a kind known in every age, whose hard-heartedness was clad in unctuous hypocrisy. Surely, if ever of any one, it can be said of Robert Burns, that his soul goes marching on. He was the harbinger of the nineteenth century, the poet of the rights and reign of the common people, whom, it has been said, God must love because he made so many of them. The earth was fresh upon the tomb of George Washington when that century was born; it discovered Lincoln and buried him with infinite regret. But its triumphant melody first found voice in the songs of Robert Burns, as the greek singer inspired Patriarch with the fire which kindled the Revival of Learning, and out of the inertia of the Middle Ages created modern times. So when Taine, the French critic, came to account for that age he found that it's spirit "Broke First in the Scotch Peasant, Robert Burns." - a man of all men most fitted to give it voice, because "scarcely ever was seen together more of misery and of talent." There are those who dream of a vague blur of cosmopolitism, in which all local loyalties, all heroic national genius shall be merged and forgotten. Not so Robert Burns. He was distinctively a national poet, striking deep roots in his native soil, and, for that reason, touching a chord so haunting that it echoes forever. This at least is true; a man who is not deeply rooted somewhere - to whom one spot on earth is not a little dearer, and the sky over it a little bluer - will not be of much use anywhere. When Burns appeared the spirit of Scotland was a low ebb. Her people were crushed and her ancient fire almost quenched. Her scholars blushed if they used her dialect. It was at such a time that a GodEndowed singer took up his harp, inspired by the history of his people, the traditions of Wallace and Bruce stirring him like a passion, his soul attuned to the old ballads of love and daring, singing the simple life of his nation in its vivid and picturesque language. He struck with a delicate but strong hand the deep and noble feelings of his countrymen, and somewhere upon his variegated robe of song will be found embroidered the life, the faith, the genius of his people. No wonder the men loved a poet, and make his home at once a throne of melody and a shrine of national glory. Because he was so deeply rooted in the soil of his own land; because he was so sweetly, sadly, joyously - yea, and even sinfully - human, his spirit and appeal are universal, for the human heart beats everywhere the same, and by loyalty to the genius of our own country we best serve our race. His passion for liberty, his affirmation of the nobility of man, his sense if dignity of labor, his pictures of the pathos and the hard lot of the lowly, find response in every breast where beats the heart of a man. It is thus that all men love Burns, for it was he who taught, as few have taught since the Son of Man lodged with the fishermen by the sea, the brotherhood of man and the kinship of all breathing things. Such singers live as long as men love life, and their words become a part of the sacred scriptures of the human heart. This is no time to deal in literary criticism - a dreary business at best, a dismal business at worst. It is by all agreed that Robert Burns was a lyric poet of the first order, if not the greatest song writer of the world. Draw a line from Shakespeare to Browning, and he is one of the few minds tall enough to touch it. The qualities of Burns are simplicity, naturalness, vividness, fire, sweet-toned pathos, and rollicking humor - qualities rare enough, and still more rarelyblended. His fame rests upon verses written swiftly, as men write letters, and upon songs as spontaneous, as artless, as lovely as the songs of birds. He sang of simple things, of the joys and woes and pieties of the common life, where sin bewshadows virtue and the cup of death is pressed to the lips of love. He saw the world as God made it, woven of good and ill, of light and shadow, and his songs come home to rich and poor alike, a comfort and a consecration.
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No wonder Burns was the best beloved poet of Lincoln, as much for his democracy as for his humor, his pathos, and his rich humanity. With him social rank was but a guinea stamp, a bit of tawdry tinsel alongside the native nobility of manhood. He honored a man for his worth, not for his wealth. For the snob, for the fop, he had genuine contempt. If he flayed the selfish pride of the rich, it was not from envy - just as truly did he scorn the poor man who, instead of standing erect, only cringes and whines. He told the poor man that it is no sin to be poor, but that it is a sin to be ashamed of it. He taught that honest poverty is not only nobler, but happier, than indolent or il-gotten wealth. The Cotter's dog and the Laird's dog are very real dogs, as all admit, but their talk is something more than dog-philosophy. It is the old, old story of the high and the low, and it is like Burns to take the part of the under dog. Still, had the Cotter's dog given way to self-pity, Burns would have been the first to kick him. He hated fawning, as he hated sham, and he knew that if toil is tragedy, labor is an honor and joy. That which lives in Robert Burns, and will live while human nature is the same, is his love of justice, of honesty, of reality, his touch of pathos and melting sympathy, his demand for liberty, his faith in man and God - all uttered with simple speech and the golden voice of song. His poems were little jets of love and liberty and pity finding their way out through the fissures in the granite-like theology of his day. They came fresh from the heart of a man whom the death of a little bird set dreaming of the meaning of the world wherein life is woven of beauty, mystery and sorrow. A flower crushed in the budding, a field mouse turned out of his home by a plowshare, a wounded hare limping along the road to dusty death, or the memory of a tiny bird who sang for him in the days agone, touched him to tears, and made him feel the old hurt and heartache of the world. The poems of Burns did not grow; they awoke complete. He was a child of the open air, and about all his songs there is an outdoor feeling - never a smell of the lamp. He saw nature with the swift glances of a child - saw beauty in the fold of clouds, in the slant of trees, in the lilt and glint of flowing waters, in the immortal game of hide-and-seek played by sunbeams and shadows, in the mists trailing over the hills. The sigh of the wind in the forest filled him with a kind of wild, sad joy, and the tender face of a mountain daisy was like the thought of one much loved and long dead. The throb of his heart was warm in his words, and it was a heart in which he carried an alabaster box of pity. He had a sad life and soul of fire, the instincts of an angel in the midst of hard poverty; yet he lived with dash and daring, sometimes with folly, and, we must add, - else we do not know Burns - with a certain bubbling joyousness, despite his tragedy. Such was the spirit of Robert Burns, a man passionate and piteous, compact of light and flame and loveliness, capable of withering scorn of wrong, quickly shifting from the ludicrous to the horrible in his fancy, poised between laughter and tears - and if by some art se could send his soul into all the dark places of the world, pity and joy would return to the common ways of man. His feet may have been in the furrow, but the nobility of manhood was in his heart, on his lips the voice of eternal melody, and in his face the light of the morning star. Long live the spirit of Robert Burns, Poet and Freeemason! May it grow and glow to the confounding of all injustice, all unkindness! He haunts his native land As an immortal youth; his hand Guides every plow. His presence haunts this room tonight, A form of mingled mist and light From that far coast.
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Inn of Year’s End Our Ancient Brethren were Pilgrims as well as Builders; and so are we. The idea of life as a journey runs all through the symbolism of Freemasonry, and to forget that truth is to lose half its beauty. Initiation itself is a journey from the west to the east in quest of that which was lost. The reason why a man becomes a Master Mason is that he may travel in foreign countries, work and receive the wages of a Master. What is symbolism with us was the actual life of Masons in days of old. An Apprentice presented his Masterpiece, and if it was approved, he was made a Master and Fellow. He could then take his kit of tools and journey wherever his work called him, a Freemason - free, that is, as distinguished from a Guild Mason, who was not allowed to work beyond the limits of his city. Thus he journeyed from Lodge to Lodge, from Land to Land, alone, or in company with his fellows, stopping at Inns betimes to rest and refresh himself. Sometimes, a Hope describes in his “Essay On Architecture,” a whole Lodge traveled together, a band of Pilgrim Builders. Like our Brethren in the olden times, we too are pilgrims - life a journey, man a traveler - and each of the Seven Ages is neighbors to the rest; and so the poets of all peoples have read the meaning of life, as far back as we can go. It is a long road we journey together, but there are inns along the way, kept by Father Time, in which we may take lodging for the night to rest and reflect - like the Inn of Year’s End, at which we arrive this month, in which there is goodly company, and much talk of the meaning of the journey, and the incidents of the road. Yes, the winding road is a symbol of the life of man true to fact. Once we are aware of ourselves as pilgrims on a journey, then the people and the scenes about us reveal their meaning and charm. If we forget that life is a Pilgrim’s Progress, we have no clue at all to an understanding of it. Strangely enough, when we settle down to be citizens of this world, the world itself become a riddle and a puzzle. By the same token, the greatest leaders of the race are the men in whom the sense of being pilgrims and sojourners on the earth is the most vivid. It is the strangers in the world, the manifest travelers to a Better Country, who get the most out of life, because they do not try to build houses of granite when they only have time to pitch a tent, or turn in at an inn. In the friendly air if the Inn of the Year’s End, where we make merry for tonight, there is much congratulation upon so much of the journey safely done, and much well-wishing for the that way lies ahead. Also, there is no end of complaint at the aches and ills, the upsets and downfalls, of the road. All kinds of faiths and philosophies mingle, and there is no agreement as to the meaning or goal of the journey. Some think life is a great adventure, others hold it to be a nuisance. Many agree with the epitaph of the poet Gay in Westminster Abbey:
“Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know it.”
But a Mason, if he has learned the secret of his Craft, knows that life is not a jest, but a great gift, “a little holding lent to do a mighty labor.” He agrees with a greater and braver poet, who said: “Away with funeral music - set The pipe to powerful lips - The cup of life’s for him that drinks, And not for him that sips.” At the end of an old year and the beginning of a new, we can see that it simplifies life to know that we are pilgrims in a pilgrim world. When a man starts on a journey he does not take everything with him, but only such things as he really needs. It is largely a matter of discrimination and transportation. To know what to take and what to leave is one of the finest of arts. It asks for insight, judgment, and a sense of values. One reason why the race moves so slowly is that it tries to take too much with it, weighing itself down with useless rubbish which ought to be thrown aside. Much worthless luggage is carted over the hills and valleys of history, hindering the advance of humanity. It is so in our own lives. Men stagger along the road with acres of land on their backs, and houses and bags of money. Others carry old hates, old grudges, old envies and disappointments, which wear down their strength for nothing. At the end of the year it is wise to unpack our bundle and sort out the things we do not need - throwing the useless litter out the window or into the fire.
S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e 13
How much does a man really need for his journey? If the wisdom of the ages is to be believed, the things we actually need are few, but they are very great. “There abideth Faith, Hope, and Love, these three; and the greatest of these is Love.” Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, to which let us add courage, which is the root of every virtue and the only security - what more do we need? In a world where the way is often dim, the road rough and the weather stormy, we have time only to love and do good. Hate is the worst folly. After all, what do we ask of life, here or hereafter, but leave to love, to serve, to commune with our fellows, with ourselves, with the wonderful world in which we live, and from the lap of earth to look up into the face of God? Neither wealth nor fame can add anything worth while. The human procession is endlessly interesting, made up of all kinds of folk - quaint, fantastic, heroic, ignoble, joyous, sorrowful, ridiculous and pathetic - some marching, some straggling through the world. There are Greathearts who patrol the road, and angels who walk with us in disguise - angels we know them to be because they believe in us when we do not believe in ourselves, and thus make us do our best. And there skulkers who shirk every danger and wander to no purpose, like the tramp in a western village who, when asked if he was a traveler, replied: “Yep, headed south this trip; Memphis maybe, if I don’t lay off sooner. I suppose I’m what you call a bum partner; but I ain’t as bad as some of ‘em. I’ve been hitting the road for quite a spell, nigh on forty years; but I hold a feller has a right to live the way he wants to as long as lets other folks alone. Anyway, I’ve had a heap of fun. Oh yes, I might have settled down and got married, and raised a lot of kids I couldn’t a-took care of, same as a lot of fellers. But I didn’t. They say kids come from heaven, so I jest thought I’d leave mine stay there. It keeps me a- hustlin’ to look after myself, and handin’ out a bit now and then to some poor devil down on his luck. Well, so long, partner.” There is the shirk, the loafer, idle and adrift, living without aim or obligation - trying to slip through and get by. But there are spiritual loafers and moral tramps almost as bad, though they do not flip trains or ask for a “Hand- out” at the back door. Any man is a loafer who takes more out of life than he puts into it, leaving the world poorer than he found it. He only has lived who, coming to the All Men’s Inn called death, has made it easier for others to see the truth and do the right. When we know we are journeymen Masons, seeking a lodge, we can better interpret the ills that overtake us. One must put up with much on a journey which would be intolerable at home Our misfortunes, our griefs are but incidents of the road. Our duties, too, are near at hand. The Good Samaritan had never met the man whom he befriended on the road to Jerico. He did not know his name. He may have had difficulty in understanding his language. None the less, he took him to the next inn, and paid for his keep. Finding his duty by the roadside, he did it, and went on his way. Such is the chivalry of the road, and if a man walks faithfully he will come to the House of God. Since we pass this way but once, we must do all the good we can, in all ways we can, to all the people we can There come thoughts of those who walked with us in other days, and have vanished. They were noble and true. Their friendship was sweet, and the old road has been lonely since they went away. Toward the end life is like a street of graves, as one by one those who journey with us fall asleep. But if we walk “the Road of the Loving Heart,” and make friends with the Great Companion. we shall not lose our way, nor be left alone when we come at last, as come we must, like all Brothers and Fellows before us, to where the old road dips down into the Valley of Shadows. It is strange; the soul too is a pilgrim, and must pass on. Walking for a brief time in this vesture of clay, it betakes itself on an unknown journey. A door opens, and the pilgrim spirit, set free, makes the Great Adventure where no path is. But he who made us Brothers and Pilgrims here will lead us there, and the way He Knoweth. No blind and aimless way our spirit goeth, but to Him who hath set eternity in our hearts. Such thoughts visit us, such faiths and hopes cheer us, gathered in the Inn of Year’s End, thinking of the meaning of the way. “I go mine, thou goest thine; Many ways we wend, Many ways and many days, Ending in one end. Many a wrong and its crowning song, Many a road and many an Inn; Far to roam but only one home For all the world to win.”
14 S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e
Messages Happy Birthday!
Congratulations from all your Scottish Rite Brethren To our members over 90 who have reached a very important birthday!
November
December
Earl Conom 11/21/1919
Joseph Haleva 12/19/2019
Richard Speidel 11/27/1923
Haskel Howard 12/31/1925
Floyd Klinkenberg 11/12/1927
Frederick Oliver 12/12/1927
Edward Tolford 11/07/1929
Donald King 12/25/1928
Thomas Loftus 11/08/1930
William Edwards 12/10/1929
James Hart 11/11/1930
Raymond Horn 12/24/1929
Paul Cole 11/28/1930
Joseph Bennett 12/31/1930
Polo shirts are in! Get yours now $20.00
S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e 15
www.seattle-scottishrite.org
MONTH TIME EVENT November 14
9:00am
Excom
November 17
7:00pm
Stated Meeting (Zoom Virtual)
December 5 9:00am Excom December
No Stated Meeting
The zoom access codes will be emailed out about a week before but if you don’t receive it just let us know and we will get it to you.
All Times may change as the closures due to the pandemic are updated with the ability to meet in person.
Jackets $40.00 looks great
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