BELIEVE AND HOPE!

Greetings and welcome back to The Universal Freemason Research Society’s study and opinion of Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma!

 

  We sincerely appreciate your time spent here and it is our hope that the words of Albert Pike have been meaningful and life changing for you as they have been for us. 

 

   We are continuing Chapter 26 this time where Pike is continuing his thoughts regarding “we refuse to believe, because we do not understand."

 

   We left our study and opinion last time with those words and the results of our actions during non-understanding, which is ignorance, which in gnostic thought and in much Masonic thought is indeed DARKNESS. 

 

We seek more understanding and less ignorance.

 

 As we continue, Pike spells out more consequences or ignorance and the benefits of belief and understanding.

 

  And now, LET’S READ PIKE!

 

 

    

His Universe; would fain see and talk to Him face to face, as man talks to man: and we try not to believe, because we do not understand.

He commands us to love one another, to love our neighbor as ourself; and we dispute and wrangle, and hate and slay each other, because we cannot be of one opinion as to the Essence of His Nature, as to His Attributes; whether He became man born of a woman, and was crucified; whether the Holy Ghost is of the same substance with the Father, or only of a similarsubstance; whether a feeble old man is God's Vicegerent; whether some are elected from all eternity to be saved, and others to be condemned and punished; whether punishment of the wicked after death is to be eternal; whether this doctrine or the other be heresy or truth;--drenching the world with blood, depopulating realms, and turning fertile lands into deserts; until, for religious war, persecution, and bloodshed, the Earth for many a century has rolled round the Sun, a charnel-house, steaming and reeking with human gore, the blood of brother slain by brother for opinion's sake, that has soaked into and polluted all her veins, and made her a horror to her sisters of the Universe.

 

Pike is spelling out in this paragraph the danger of dogma, or “the belief of having THE TRUTH and refusing to explore or accept the truth of others."

And we discussed in the past the dangers of bullheaded dogma, and we also explored how difficult it is to retreat from dogma, especially from religious dogma due to the fact that we are expected many times by our families and peers to toe the line in the dogma of those teachings, or we often face banishment from our cultures.

Let’s continue:

And if men were all Masons, and obeyed with all their heart

p. 531

her mild and gentle teachings, that world would be a paradise; while intolerance and persecution make of it a hell. For this is the Masonic Creed: BELIEVE, in God's Infinite Benevolence, Wisdom, and Justice: HOPE, for the final triumph of Good over Evil, and for Perfect Harmony as the final result of all the concords and discords of the Universe: and be CHARITABLE as God is, toward the unfaith, the errors, the follies, and the faults of men: for all make one great brotherhood.

Here in this paragraph is the very essence of Masonry, whch unfortunately is often lost in Masonic lodges because of other more important business matters such as “attracting new members”, or masonic trials for current members who decide not to follow the dogmatism that even Masonic lodges bring upon their members.

 

If we, and I mean all of humanity could shun intolerances and persecution of all kinds, I wonder would there be a need for the strife we have brought upon ourselves today in the name of (fill in the blank with any religious, political, or even masonic lodge dogmatic creed here).

 

 We can change this course humanity is on, and we can start to change this course NOW. 

 

  We have to choose to individually shun intolerances and the persecution of others, and if you are a mason, YOU can stand up in your lodge and speak out against these actions as YOU see them. 

In the workplace we can stand up to injustices there, too.

In our homes, we can teach our children that it is NOT prudent to be intolerant and to shun persecuting, or bullying others who seem weaker than the rest. It is masonic to help the weakest of us all to become the strongest of us all. 

 

 Stand up for what is right, and let us all stand up TODAY, because there may not be a chance tomorrow for any of us to continue our works for the greater good of all.

 

  This IS THE masonic thing to do!

 

 

  And with this short, but very meaningful, post we will end for today because next is the chatechism of the 26th degree where we explore in q and a form the meanings and great truths of masonry, which is equally or even more meaningful than our discourse today.

 

  Thank you for reading today, I will see you next time!