The Plains of The Great Past

In Freemasonry, a peculiar emphasis is placed on the study of the past.

In the degrees of the Scottish Rite, we are taken through the ages of man to the great plains of the past and endued with the wisdom of those times.

By studying the past we can arrive at a better understanding of the present, and by understanding both the past and the present we can make educated estimations about the future.

Take away someone's knowledge of the past and you shroud them in a cloak of uncertainty and ignorance.

Have you read the book 1984 by George Orwell?

In it, he paints the picture of a tyrannical dystopian empire.

Families are torn apart, humans are subjugated to the unquestionable word of the government, and free-thinkers are kidnapped and executed for daring to go against the grain.

In this book, Orwell seemingly prophesied many of the cultural dogmas that we are pressured with today, but one stands out to me in particular.

The citizens of this dystopian nation are kept completely in the dark regarding the history of the world and even the history of their own nation.

Historical documents are defrauded, statues are removed, and names and records are erased completely from public knowledge.

By keeping their citizens in the dark they are keeping them from ever realizing how truly tyrannical their present truly is.

Freedom is stolen inch by inch.

It is our duty as men and Masons to enrich our minds with the knowledge of the past for the purpose of empowering ourselves toward the betterment of the future.

We are often told the great stories and legends of our masonic history.

Tales of the temple of King Solomon, the Knights Templar, and the various philosophers and thinkers whom we hear in our Scottish Rite degrees.

Even with all that we know, it is still said that 98% of history is unrecorded and lost forever.

Empires that have risen and fallen, once part of the great record of time, now left to bathe in the waters of nameless eternity.

Libraries burned, documents destroyed, truths hidden...

As we gaze back into the past the thinking man can't help but romanticize the idea of the history left behind.

What if there is more to this story that is still yet to be discovered?

What if the story is deeper and more beautiful than even we know now?

This is why you became a Mason, isn't it?

West Nashville Phoenix Lodge is hosting an event this Friday that intends to illuminate the truths of this lost history.

If you feel called to pursue the light of the past, click here.

We hope to have you join us on this great mission.