STS. JOHN DAYS. June 24- December 27

Excerpt: www.masonicworld.com

Published By: Daniel Genchi

By history, custom, tradition and ritualistic requirements, the Craft holds dear the days of St. John the Baptist on June 24, and St. John the Evangelist on December 27. A lodge which forgets either forfeits a precious link with the past and loses an opportunity for the renewal of allegiance to everything in Freemasonry symbolized by these Patron Saints. No satisfactory explanation has as yet been advanced to explain why operative Masons adopted two Christian saints, when St. Thomas, the patron of architecture and building, was available.Most Freemasons are agreed that the choice of our ancient brethren was wise. No two great teachers, preachers, wise men, saints, could have been found who better showed in their lives and works the doctrine and teachings of Freemasonry. St. John the Evangelist apparently came into our fraternal system somewhere towards the close of the sixteenth century; at least, we find the earliest authentic lodge minute reference to St. John the evangelist in Edinborough in 1599, although earlier mentions are made in connection with that may be called relatives, if not ancestors, of our Craft. For instance “The Fraternity of St. John” existed in Cologne in 1430.  “St. John’s Masonry” is a distinctive term for Scotch Lodges, many of the older of which took the name of the saint. Thus, in its early records, the Lodge of Scoon and Perth is often called the Lodge of St. John, and the Lodge possesses a beautiful mural painting of the-saint, on the east wall of the lodge room.Other Lodges denominated “St. John’s Lodges” were some of those unaffiliated with either the “Moderns” or the “Ancients” in the period between establishment of the Ancients (1751) and the Reconciliation (1813).In many old histories of the Craft is a quaint legend that St. John the Evangelist became a “Grand Master” at the age of ninety.

Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty

Submitted by:  Richard D. Marcus George Washington 1776 Lodge, F&AM #337 Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin

Published By: Daniel Genchi

Triads are groups of three ideas or objects. Triads appear in nature, politics, and religion. To early man, the cosmos consisted of the sun, the moon, and the stars. He called the natural elements earth, wind, and fire. He could see triads in the three-leaf clover. He knew he lived in a three-dimensional world. In politics, the US Constitution established three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. And in religion, most faiths teach fealty to God, your neighbor, and yourself. All are arranged in intriguing triads of ideas. Let us endeavor to understand some of the power in triads both historically and for us as Masons.Before we become aware of triads, we think in opposites or dual concepts. Developmental learning theorists easily prove that infants learn through simple stimulus and response events. Touch a newborn baby’s cheek; her instinctive reflex will be to turn her head in that direction. She quickly learns to identify her Mother’s voice from all others. As language is acquired, knowledge can be gathered by asking, “why?” After a child asks a question she is rewarded with an answer. The pattern engages a pair of concepts or dyads. Even as we advance in learning, we make decisions using dyads by giving reasons for and against an action. A straightforward method for determining a course of action involves drawing a vertical line on paper and arranging the pro and con arguments on either side.Furthermore, Socratic teaching methods train students by asking questions. The students must provide the answer or else the teacher must supply it. Catechisms are similarly simple teaching devices for youth. The first question in the Westminster Confession asks, “What is the chief end of man?” The student replies, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The question is neat; the answer is clean. This is an uncomplicated style of learning for the young.But as men, we become more complex. Answers tend to include modifiers such as on the one hand this, but on the other hand that. Dualistic thinking is insufficient for more advanced analysis. Socratic methods tend to give way to Hegelian philosophy that was based on threes: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Inspired by Christian insights and grounded in his mastery of a fund of knowledge, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel attempted to answer all questions–natural, human, and divine–using dialectical reasoning that swung from thesis to antithesis and back again to a richer synthesis. Two opposing forces resolve into a creature wholly different, like the cross-fertilization of two different rose bushes producing a more perfect hybrid.Higher learning tended to use triads. Among the seven liberal arts and sciences are grammar and rhetoric. Grammar uses subject, verb, and object − three things. Adjectives are inflected into good, better, and best − also triads.