My What a Big Nose You Have

Dear Unknown Friend,

Not long ago, UGLE acknowledged a feminine Masonic body is inherently Masonic despite its irregularity in admitting women, and has on some occasions welcomed these irregular Masons in their Masonic capacity, to some of its official, but public functions. Essentially, UGLE acknowledged that there are women Freemasons in the world. What trips many people, Masons and Non-Masons alike is their lack of understanding that acknowledge and recognize are two very different words. Acknowledging someone as being Masonic, does not confer any of the rights or articles of recognition upon that person. Contemporary Masons share a common burden, the myth of synonyms (no two words are the same, or alike in meaning) and thus the words recognition and acknowledgement create a gray area to the minds of many, opening doors that ought not be opened. I have known several Brothers, in and out of Utah, who have made this linguistic oversight and did not understand and appreciate the subtlety or nuance of this unique and delicate occurrence in English Freemasonry. UGLE’s decision not withstanding the simple truth is, whether we like it or not, there are women Freemasons in the world. Is that bad? No. It is what it is, and it just is. And that in acknowledging their existence, we can more closely identify the important understanding as to why women shouldn’t be admitted into Lodge.

Does it Really Matter

Aside from our oaths (we all swore to God, Allah, Buddha, Odin, Aphrodite, the Green Man, the Goddess, etc… ad nasuem) that we would not let a women enter Lodge, and aside from those who label us misogynistic or bigoted or of being ensconced in parochial attitudes (thus compelling us change our ways to satisfy their presumptions on the world) does it really matter if women do or do not come into Lodge.

The answer is yes. But only if we dare to face, as Brother J. Kinney ascribes Jung’s work, ‘our own shadow’. Id est. – it is easy and convenient to call Freemasonry a purely charitable organization (note: relief and charity are dissimilar, another language thing) or as a purely convivially association, until we get to the last fundamental tenet - truth. At this last tenet we become scared of our own shadow, because it is this tenet that tests the other two. It is difficult to tolerate a Brother, who is promulgating an idea that is contrary to your ideas – possibly even contrary, or even antagonistic to your religious, political, or ideological ontologies. We can all generally agree that we ought to relieve of others in need of relief, and that we all need some sort of social bonds and network – but that last one, Truth, can be painful. Even scholars and our best and brightest minds cannot agree on just exactly what the meaning of truth is, or how it can be applied, and here we boldly claim universal truth as a fundamental tenet of our Order – you want to talk about ‘brass-cohonies’.

And ‘brass-cohonies’ *is* the point of my rambling and probably ill-advised, and unquestionably poorly response to the discussion on the floor. Freemasonry, as a philosophical system (we claim to expound truth to Freemasons, thus making Freemasons wiser men, that is to say they are increased with truth, or wisdom; lovers of wisdom are philosophers, ergo we are a philosophers in a philosophical system) is the only remaining school of Male Mysteries left in the western world; at least the only one that can claim several centuries of effective work.

I use the term Male Mysteries specifically in this conversation of women, as it was the study and acceptance of Women’s Mysteries that unlocked the door of female equality – which is the ultimately the only possible, albeit tenuous claim for allowing women in Lodge – thus making the term Male Mysteries loaded with the same shot and primer that made Women’s Mysteries so effectual and essentially valid. Id est. – to dismiss Male Mysteries is to dismiss Women’s Mysteries, meaning that rhetorically I get to filibuster and those that disagree that Male Mysteries and Female Mysteries are equally valid can proverbially stuff it.

The argument of admitting women in Lodge is rendered moot if one considers Freemasonry not an egalitarian society although our tenet of brotherly love is certainly egalitarian, but rather a school of Male Mysteries. It should be noted that brotherly love/egalitarianism is but a 1/3rd of our morality, meaning we see the equality is important but only part of goodness (egalitarian by the way is derived from the French égal, meaning level). If one considers Freemasonry a school of Male Mysteries, within which we consider a fundamental truth of being a man is being egalitarian; if one considers Freemasonry as a school for men, to learn what it means to be a man, to understand and explore that identity, to be presented with challenges and struggles to affirm that identity, hone ite, and let others prosper from it (something we are denied in secular society) then admitting women is useless, and nothing more than window dressing and pandering. And comparisons to the OES and American Fraternalism are also revealed as incomplete at best.

Nor does the school of Male Mysteries undermined gender egalitarianism, rather it acknowledges that men and women are equal, but different in fundamental i.e. emotional and spiritual ways, and thus a system is needed for men to learn to be a man, and to be recognized as such by their peers. The difficulty here is that in is not politically correct to make such statements. In our PC world, everyone is cut from the same cloth, and equality must mean uniformity without variation or unique identity.

Granted, I was the one who pointed out that there are female masons in the world, and I will be the first one to say – my dear Lady, you are missing something. This practice and organization was started by men, for men, because they knew men need this information and organization, ergo, Freemasonry remains inherently male in character, scope, and context (without suffering the neutering of our language) and thus it is out of context to admit women in Lodge.

Anyway the point is simply – a Lodge has no idea what to do with women. It was designed that way on purpose. And that is okay.

PoTS

J.