Morals and Dogma Study and Opinion

Greetings Friends and Freemasons! When I set out to creaate this study and opinion regarding Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma over 10 years ago I was in a fight for my life against bladder cancer, and I did not know if I was going to come away from the battle with my life. I wanted to leave behind something that I hoped then and still hope now that might improve society, help change someones thinking for the better, or at least help to peak interests in the philosophies of freemasonry, which are indeed life changing. I came away from the cancer battle without my bladder, and with serious PTSD issues related to the fight, but I am happy to be alive and to continue to spread the good word of freemasonry that there IS light that defeats the daarkness, there is hope when things seem hopeless and there is life after treading the doorstep of death. Over 27,000 people have read this blog, I am so grateful! I hope it has meant something to you or at least caused you to t...

Greetings and welcome back to the return of our study of Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma where we will continue on with page 829 of Chapter 32.      Some house keeping is in order before I begin today as I have been on an extended hiatus from this study dealing with a case of writers block, bouts of depression, helping my wife through some serious health issues and also trying to come to terms with the despotism and anarchy that Pike himself wrote about extensively throughout Morals and Dogma, that has now invaded the hallowed halls of Washington, D.C. and will seemingly be entrenched there for the foreseeable future.    Columbia herself, whose likeness stands proudly in statue form high on top of the U.S. Capitol Building, is assuredly cringing on a daily basis as are most Americans while we wonder, sometimes aloud, “what is next?”.     In short, there has been a lot invading my mind which has kept me from completing this study ...

Greetings!       All of the work i thought i lost, I rediscovered from my wordpress site. This is from chapter one of Morals and Dogma when I first began this journey way back in February of 2013. I was trying to “find my voice” as a writer at that point, and I was not certain how the masonic circles were going to receive my efforts on offering this study.    I encountered a lot of support from YOU, the readers, and a lot of animosity from those I attended lodge with at that time.      But I pressed on, anyway, because I truly believed then and continue to believe now that Pike’s words can and do change peoples minds for the better which also changes societyfor the better.      This is Christmas weekend, 2017. Please enjoy this entry. Have a safe Christmas!        You can find the earlier chapters of our study at masonicme.wordpress.com            Lets...

      Greetings Everyone and Welcome to the 31st Chapter of Morals and Dogma. We are almost finished studying and opining this great work of Albert Pike.           It has taken about 2 years to get this far in our study. Unfortunately, I lost much of the study (formerly at masonic me.com) due to using another blog site that demanded payments that I coud not afford due to paying for cancer treatments instead.       Many of those studies are written in The Working Tools Magazine, which I have copies of and will scan and transfer those lessons onto this site after we reach the end of Chapter 32.         This time, we begin Chapter 31 as I mentioned, where Pike has written some very valuable lessons for all freemasons.         All too often, I believe we forget our purposes as freemasons, where we get busy with Lodge business, and not busy enough with the obligation of being an instr...

          Greetings and welcome back as we continue with chapter 30 of Morals and Dogma as we study the teachings therein.     We are about 2 chapters away from finishing Morals and Dogma. Those of you who might have been joining me from the start know it has been a long road through personal trials and illnesses that we have been this far in the last 3 years, and I am only touching upon my own life.  I am sure many of you have been through much yourselves.    This time, we will study Pike’s words regarding the beginning of the Rose Croix, or Rose Cross.     We will examine the ancient symbolism of the rose and hopefully, we can bring the meanings of this mystery into our own lives.     Now, LET’S READ PIKE!       "The Successors of the Ancient Adepts Rose-Croix, abandoning by degrees the austere and hierarchial Science of their Ancestors in initiation, became a Mystic Sect, un...

Greetings and welcome as we continue our study and opinion of Albert Pike’s “Morals and Dogma”. We find ourselves today about half way through chapter 29.     Please recall that “Morals and Dogma” was published in 1871 at a time when America was experiencing her own growing pains post civil war, and at the dawn of the coming industrial revolution.     Pike was a General for the Confederate States during the civil war, and after the war Pike was an astute lawyer who very often found himself in court with claims against the established United States government.      It is important to recall these aspects about Pike as we begin our study today, just as it is important to recognize that Pike’s words, though written in the 1800s, are extremely important today as the United States is experiencing a governance unpopular with the majority of the people.     In the past few months we in America ha...

Greetings and welcome back as we begin chapter 29 of Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike.     This time we will read about the virtues of knighthood and we will examine the importance in history of the cross of St. Andrew.     There is a bit od personal history regarding St. Andrew for me where the main catholic church in my neighborhood in Detroit where I grew up was St. Andrew’s Catholic Church. Though I was not raised catholic, the majority of my neighborhood was catholic and attended that church every Sunday, and many of my friends attended St. Andrew’s Catholic School.    St. Andrew’s Church in my old neighborhood held all sorts of festivals and events where the entire neighborhood would attend and were welcomed no matter what religious persuasion you were. I enjoyed many Halloween events there as a kid in their gymnasium as well as so many fall and summer festivals throughout the year.     Because of my lack of understa...

    Greetings and welcome back as we proceed with chapter 26 of Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike.        We have been learning and opining about gnostic philosophies for the past few entries as chapter 26 is one of the longer chapters in Morals and Dogma, so I hope I have made this chapter worth “staying tuned” for.      I have found that the more I study gnosticism, the more I understand freemasonry so I can understand why Pike took time to write about and teach the different sects of gnostic thought. I also have found that the more I understand about gnosticism, the more similarities I recognize in more mainstream religions.    I cannot say who derived what from whom or who was inspired more from whom as I have not studied enough of the history of mainstream christianity and gnosticism but it is apparent some items are clearly the same.     We are going to study the gnostic pilosophies of the Manichea...

Greetings and welcome back to our study and opinion of Albert Pike’s “Morals and Dogma”.    For any of you who are new to this blog, thank you for starting to read with me this very important historical work of Albert Pike. This study and opinion was created as a means to help more people to become interested in reading Morals and Dogma after I found out that many masons (uninititiated and initiated) had never read this life changing work.    This is meant to inspire you to read along and form your own opinions and ideas as I share my own opinions and ideas regarding what the text means to me, and I hope you will take some time during the week and ponder what it means to be alive and inquiring the complexities of this text.     This time we will read more of Pike’s findings about the gnostics and gnostic ideologies.       Pike has written several pages in this chapter regarding the different gnosticism, an...