A word from the President:
Dear readers, the world is undergoing major change. Freemasonry and its children cannot and must not shut themselves off from it. We want to do our part and our brothers are involved in many charity projects around the planet to help and do good. Unlike service clubs that pride themselves on their achievements we as an organization have a different approach. In no way do we want to exalt ourselves as donors and thereby demean the recipients of our charity. We do all this in secret, without ever asking for anything in return, this approach unites all Masonic organizations in the world.
In addition to these activities, we see the improvement of ourselves as the highest good. We want to further develop our brothers as personalities and all our fellow citizens should benefit from these positive developments. We clearly reject business bricklaying that goes beyond mutual assistance and see our members in the light of the great architect as a guide to the prevailing disorientation of mankind. A guide to a better integration, serious interpersonal dealings and a more pronounced understanding of the interaction between people and deliver nature. In many ways it is already five past twelve and all mankind must hurry to correct past mistakes and make this planet a more liveable place for all living beings, fauna and flora. We Freemasons strive for this as the most important goal for all humanity, I also encourage you to read a brother’s summary below.
In conclusion, I can state that it is not enough to just be critical, we all have to rise out of our own comfort zone in order to be able to bring about positive changes, let’s make this planet a better place for the coming generations.
With fraternal greetings your
President of C.·.G.·.L.·.E.·.M.·.
THE SECRET WISDOM OF THE BEES
namely FREEMASONRY AS A METHOD
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey and beeswax. There are over 16,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants.
Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for larvae. Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially.
This is written in Wikipedia. Perhaps this is not all very confident, because it is from Wikipedia – but is worth to be read – bees are a fascinating community – so are we. We also could be found on every continent and we are important for mankind.
Now, what are the parallels to freemasonry as a method?
In an Austrian newspaper you cold read two years ago:
The queen bee, on the other hand, is anyway the mother of all “citizens”, who are siblings among themselves. Which makes it clear that the bee colony is largely based on the motto of the French Revolution: “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite”, i.e. “Freedom, Equality, Fraternity”. The queen bee herself does not issue orders and does not legislate. The fact that a bee colony still works is due to the fact that the Queen’s subjects do their daily work autonomously. They carry out different activities depending on the stage of their lives. The young bees do cleaning services inside the stick. Only later they become builders and participate in honeycomb construction. As we know the bees, they only behave in their last 14 days of life: they begin to visit the flowers outside the stick to feed their people.”
So, there are a lot of parallels between Bees and freemasonry. A few of this parallel I want to point out. But there are also some susceptive advantages of the bees also.
First of all, they kill their male (ok that’s an option we should not copy anyway).
They fight for each other and are willing to be killed. We fight for Each other too, not anymore active in these times, but if it is necessary, we stand together and we never tell our secrets to others, who are not freemasons.
They have a secret language (called waggle dance) to tell the others, where the best nectar and pollen could be found. We also have a special form of language, as every organisation has, to tell us the important facts.
Honey Bees, this species is mainly in our mind, we talk about bees, are organised in colonies. A lot of other bee species live solitary. So do we – we, as freemasons organise in groups, called lodges, as you know. A lot of other human are not organised as this, so from my point of view they also live solitaire.
In this colonies honey bees work hierarchic, with a clear focus on their jobs, as you heard before. Zoologists speak of a superorganism here, because the functionality of each individual bee is in the foreground.
So, freemasonry as a method is a hierarchic method and that is the subject I´d like to focus at my further remarks. Freemasonry is a clear hierarchic work in the rituals and freemasonry is a hierarchic organisation. This has a lot of advantages.
First of all, there are exactly defined grades (from apprentice up to masters and all the further grades). In each grade you must know certain facts and you are allowed to do certain things. The benefit of this is, you can be concentrated on your role and especially in the deeper grade you are able to learn. If you do only a certain thing, you are able to focus at this thing in your full responsibility. So do the honey bees.
Going on in the grades our responsibility will grow step by step and further tasks are to be done. To fulfil these responsibilities and to get the tasks done right, there is very important, that your role and your function is as clear as is could be. First of all, it is important to see the two different aspects: role and function. The role you could compare to the grade you are, the function depends on the job you have to do in the ritual or in the organisation. For certain functions you need to have certain roles (grades), as you know.
In both, the role and the function, four aspects are important to get them clear. Potency, Protection, Permission, Process. What does this mean:
In freemasonry everyone must have the potency to fulfil his responsibilities on his tasks. Stepping up the grades, learning and getting experiences are the best way to get this potency.
Having a function, you are allowed to do certain things – a certain function in the ritual even forces you to do special things – so you got the permission.
Both permission and potency give ourselves and the other brothers protection. Permission and potency line out the borders. So we have Protection to focus and act in our roles and functions and protection to do our tasks, because the border of all roles and functions are clear.
And this all together (potency, permission and protection) enable our process, the freemasonry work as our main symbol, the square tells us to do.
A colony full of honey bees wont work, if they haven´t this clear roles. So i.e. as an apprentice you won´t have a lot of responsibility, so we can focus on ourselves and grow into the big colony of freemasonry. You remember honey bees, they first start with cleaning and on the end of their life, they collect nectar and pollen.
Very similarly as it is written in Duncan’s Masonic Monitor of 1866 “The square, to square our actions; The compasses, to circumscribe and keep us within bounds with all mankind …”
But there is one aspect left, I didn’t find at the life of honey bees:
Even as a member in any higher grade, you can step in and step out the certain grades and even as master you are in a certain way still apprentice. In our personal mastery we never stop learning.
My dear readers, in all your qualities I hope that these lines have given you food for thought and energy to bring about positive changes in your personal environment.
With warm fraternal regards
a Brother from Austria.
