The Secrecy of Freemasonry - Part 2

There secrets that we rely on in day to day lives. Secrets that are hiding in plain sight. What you are doing now, reading this article, well, you wouldn’t be able to do it without the several secrets that are staring you right in the face as you read this.

In this edition of Daily Masonic Progress, we are going to take little detour than what intended on writing about yesterday. Today we will be covering when to keep secrets and when to reveal them.

Tomorrow, we will finish with what day-to-day secrets are hiding in plain sight and How society can’t function without Secrets (Part 2)

Yesterday, we covered:

• Why Freemasonry has secrets (Part 1)

• How Masonic secrets actually work (Part 1)

If you missed Part 1 of the Secrecy of Freemasonry — click here read it now.

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In order to understand what day to day secrets are hiding in plain sight, and how society can’t function without secrets, we really need to understand when and how secrets can be revealed and when they should be kept secret.

You must be thinking that in today’s society, saying that we can’t function without secrets, and that we need to reveal them, while also keep them secret is quite the contrarian view. This becomes an even more absurd when we consider that in recent times, the revealing of secrets into the public sphere has brought to light nefarious activities of Governments and Corporations.

Especially so, when these bodies were then brought to justice because they had concealed their activities which brought harm to the people they were supposed to protect.

Now, I am not here to argue the politics and morality of whether Edward Snowden’s leaks about the NSA, Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks or that the revealing of secrets can be “for the greater good”.

What I will tell you though, is what is Freemasonry’s’ position on secrets and secret knowledge. But, we have to look to the text in our ceremonies. This gives us the specific framework we need, while highlighting a critical mistake people make in misunderstanding Masonic secrets.

See in our ceremonies and right throughout Freemasonry, there is a key that unlocks all of our secrets, this is also a secret hiding in plain sight for us Freemasons. So, in our ceremonies, when we promise to keep them, there is also a clause that actually gives us permission to reveal them. But that clause sets out the requirements as to when we can reveal them, who we can reveal them to, and how we can reveal them.

That clause, depending on your jurisdiction is worded:

“until being brought to light in the same regular manner.. after trial & examination .. full conviction they’re worthy of that confidence.. in the body of a lodge, just, perfect and regular”

And what this clause does is give us permission to reveal them.

Let’s examine this a little more closely.

The term in the body of a lodge, just, perfect and regular is saying that in order for the secrets to be revealed to someone the lodge needs to be properly tyled, have a warrant or charter from the Grand Lodge and have 7 or more Brethren in attendance.

While the terms about trial & examination and the full conviction they’re worthy, is about making sure that the gentleman seeking the secrets has not only demonstrated through their actins they’ve qualified through our membership process to.

Then the terms about being brought to light in the same regular manner is about making sure they’ve been initiated into Freemasonry in the same way as you have.

Now this may seem a little restrictive, and it is, but if you remember the point I made yesterday about how Freemasonry is a metaphorical university degree or trade qualification— then you must realise the importance of someone having the full education to make sense of the ‘secret’.

Here is an example. The other day, I changed a power point in the bathroom because it was broken. I am not a qualified or licensed electrician. I have a good enough understanding of it to be able to have done the work, albeit illegally.

Now imagine if a Licensed electrician just told me that all I needed to do was unscrew the power point from the wall, unscrew the wires from the socket and swap it out for thew new one?

As I am not a licensed electrician and haven’t been brought to light in the same manner as he was, let’s think about what could have gone wrong if I just followed this instruction on face and literal value.

I can think of a few things, with the obvious is the whole water and electricity thing. Then there is also if I was to have bridges the positive and negative wires. Plus I am sure a bunch of other things that could have gone wrong and resulted in my electrocution and untimely demise.

Being electrocuted and having my whole body light up with 240 voltes isn’t being brought to light is it?

Now, this information, communicated to another electrician or even an apprentice also contains the assumption of all the prior or “esoteric knowledge” of the trade. For any electrician to give that information, he would have had to ensure I’d be worthy of the confidence to get those specific instructions.

Or the appropriate place to learn how to do that, would have been in a TAFE or Technical College workshop that teaches you the theory and practical lessons of how to be an electrician. This is what we mean by the body of a lodge, just, perfect an regular.

See, if I was someone who is a licensed electrician and who has been brought to light with the trade knowledge of an electrician, I would have known to shut the electricity off at the mains, use a tester to ensure the wires weren’t not live, knowing which one is positive, ground and earth. — yes “Ground” and “Earth” are two different things in electrical wiring. Now, thankfully for my sake, I knew those things, but there is probably a myriad of stuff I don’t know and missed.

The point is, Freemasonry provides the framework for which secrets can and should be revealed. That framework is purely and simply about ensuring someone has met all the pre-requisites to receive them.

While it’s not the same as being electrocuted, in operative times, it was ensuring the building didn’t collapse under its own weight causing death to anyone inside let alone the cost of building, demolishing the collapsed temple and re-building it.

READ PART 3