Secrets ?????

For many people unfamiliar with the fraternity, they feel that we are a secret society. Many of the candidates for Freemasonry also believe that we are a secret organization. As we all know we are an organization with very, very few secrets. Primarily those secrets are the signs, tokens, and words.

The man who petitions a lodge and seeks admission and is admitted to our ranks may have a different opinion after taking part in some of the work we do.

The current officers have been in their position for about four months now. Most of those officers have been in at least one other office before assuming their current position. Quite often the wardens, deacons, and even the Masters have a difficult time addressing the other officers by their correct title. It reminds me of trying to address one of my sons by his correct name, often a list is gone through before hitting on the correct one. Brother Senior Deacon errr Senior Warden errr Junior Warden. It's happened to all of us. I think nerves may play a small part but the real reason is a lack of familiarity with the work in its proper form.

Three of the most important things that separate us from other organizations is our signs, tokens, and words and they are our deep dark secrets.......they've become such a secret that many of us don't know what they are and their proper usage.

How impressive is it to a candidate to see our officers stumble and not be familiar with our core elements? One lecture points out that it was necessary for the candidate to meet with three obstructions to test the sincerity of the business the candidate was then engaging in......the question becomes how sincere are we in imparting these vital signs, tokens, and words to the candidate? More often than not they are bobbled....it's happened to all of us....but it just seems too consistent to be a fluke......it's just another demonstration that we are unfamiliar with our own work.

Opening and closing a lodge is supposedly done ritualistically, in other words it should be done the exact same way each and every time. We are all continually exposed to it....but if one doesn't study and review it....procedures slip, words are substituted or left out and it can very easily spiral out of control. Those things which we think we are most familiar with are usually where we make mistakes, because we don't concentrate our thoughts on them as intently as we do when doing a new part for the first time. We practice, drill and rehearse those new parts and don't go back and practice, drill, and rehearse what we think we know.

We need to use the "secrecy" thing to our advantage.....it adds some mystique and uniqueness to our fraternity. So lets unlock the secrets for ourselves and be proud of our signs, tokens, and words thereby projecting a strong familiarity of the work to our candidates so they can recognize just how serious and meaningful the work is to us and the fraternity.