A Freemason I Am
After many huge life-altering changes in a relatively short period of time (2017-2020: the end of my time abroad, end of a career, end of one relationship and the start of a new one, changes due to my medical situation, et cetera) I was required to do some soul-searching in 2023. Who and what am I? Who and what do I wish to become and how do I get there? Should I find some help or guidance and if so what kind? I am not religious and strongly resent dogmatism … so, where should go? I decided to join the Freemasonry. “Know thyself” is one of the mottos of the Freemasonry … so a good place to start the exploration and discovery journey.
Now, some of you might have read odd and very silly things about the Freemasons online (conspiracy theories and cult-like weirdness). Well, believe me or not (your choice), it’s nothing like that. If I had to describe Freemasonry in one sentence: ‘a dogma-free semi-philosophical ethical brotherhood of spiritual and philanthropic Freethinkers’, where all brothers work by themselves and together on the bettering of oneself and the world.
Perhaps that sounds interesting to you and you wish to know more? Then I suggest visiting my blog Roel’s World, I wrote a couple of articles about Freemasonry.
I had the opportunity to share why I became a freemason in the Dutch Freemasonry magazine VM:
Read / download the complete VM magazine
My membership
My initiation (in Freemasonry, becoming an Entered Apprentice) took place on 03-05-2023 (digital root 2023 makes: 3-5-7) at lodge #303 “De Gulden Regel” (The Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would like to be treated”) in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. It was a memorable experience. I can’t share anything about the initiation ritual, but joining this Brotherhood felt a bit like being ‘knighted’. After all, entering knighthood was a kind of “rite of passage”, when you were thought worthy to rise from squire to knight. Also a moment of the transition from boy to man and from ‘common man’ to a ‘noble man’. With it came some duties and responsibilities. The same, of course, also applies when taking the vow as a Freemason: accepting the duties and responsibilities you have for you Brothers, but also for your fellow man in the profane world and in fact the world itself.
This first year on the Masonic path is about self discovery, ‘Know Thyself“. In this year I have learned wonderful things about myself and my ‘inner world’. Obviously also things I could (should) improve.
Another lovely thing that year was my election for the function ‘Organist’. Back in the day, on of the Brethren would accompany rituals and ceremonies on organ (or piano). Nowadays with all the technology available a sound system in the Temple is used. With laptop and controller I now play the music and control the light during rituals and ceremonies, that is, as far as my degree allows it. That is ‘the thing’, when you are elected for a function normally performed by a Master Mason. It’s a great honour though, and rather rare being elected for this function as Entered Apprentice.
I was passed to Fellow Craft on 23-10-2024 (digital root: 5). Yet again a memorable moment on my Masonic path. While self discovery was the main assignment as Entered Apprentice, as Fellow Craft instead of looking inwards, you have to look outwards, to the ‘outer world’ and figure out what role you can and should play in it.
Feel free to ask questions via my mail form, but keep in mind that I can’t share anything about what happens behind closed doors and the rituals, unless you are a freemason yourself. It is therefor useless to ask such questions …