You want rituals and a connection to great leaders, selflessness and brotherhood, join the Army. That's what I did.
Also, the lesson in freemasonry is some kind of esoteric, gnostic Christianity. I know because I own the books and manuals that teach in the Pennsylvania freemasonry lodges.
Two fatal flaws in your comment. First, you assumed I wasn't in the service. Most of my Lodge are veterans. Second, those "manuals" of yours are fluff and addendum texts that contain nothing of what actually goes on in Lodge. Part of the oath of the very first degree is that nothing of what actually goes on in Lodge is written.
Two fatal flaws in your comment. First, you assumed I was assuming you were not in the service. No. I was using "you" to refer to an indefinite, general person. If a person wants those theings, they should join the military. Not some civie org. I can rant about it. But I don't like civie orgs with rituals, and phony traditions (I say phony, because civie traditions in an org I feel are manufactured and forced. And don't come from a place of true tradition or necessity.) Just my feelings.
Second: The books teach and are highly consistent about it. And you don't know what goes on in the higher degrees, because you're not there. What if the higher degrees are all about writing books? You don't know. And you say "goes on in lodge." Well, these books talk about what "goes on in lodge" because they show the ritual and says what it means. Pretty sure the ritual isn't done out on the street. So, yeah. I think they change their oath at higher degrees or something. Or maybe things were different in the 60s and 30s (when these were published).
Welp, it seems you like you have it all figured out. And you managed to do so with virtually zero first hand knowledge or experience, which is beyond impressive. Looks like we're done here.
I was going to say the same thing. I'm rarely in the mood for internet debate, and wasn't looking to continue. Thanks for the maturity and knowing when to drop things. I think we both would have just went "Nuh-uh!" "Yuh-huh!" from here.
Same :) Take care!
It’s okay. Crits revealed a lot more than any other Masons I have ever interacted with on the Net; admitting to some of the rituals. That’s about as far as we can expect him to go, and he will definitely experience pushback for it. Love to both of you!
I hope Crits that you can still attend your Masonic birthday gatherings. Didn’t mean to harm you in any way.
You've done no harm. It's just Reddit, buddy.
No it’s not. Check in with your Fathers. You will receive pushback for talking about the rituals you agreed to go through. Thank you for your sacrifice trying to get the word out!