|
Post by corab on Jun 12, 2006 11:14:05 GMT
Hi Karen, It took about a dozen sentences before we were both on the same page and then he had to deal with a Karen never in her life happier. But I didn't bounce off the wall the way I thought I would. I've been nothing BUT calm and quiet ever since. Sort of a creepy calm that some of my friends noticed (though they also could plainly see that I was veeeeeeery happy). That calm is still with me and I think it will be for a while. Wow, congratulations ;D That must have come as a bit of a shock, albeit a very enjoyable one! I SO know that creepy calm of yours ... it's like a blanket settling over you, ever so lightly but just perfect. And at the same time it's like a veil being lifted -- the whole world certainly makes sense; everything is as it should be ... I'm sure we'll get back to that some time after your initiation ;D I expect it differs per Lodge -- we just had the fortune of totally hitting it off from day dot and getting on like a house on fire ever since; and I've been very close with my RWM and her husband (my proposer) since first we met. THREE hours?!?! Blimey, I though I had to travel far, with my 2 hours! Grab every opportunity you can to meet up with your Brethren -- they will become like family, and it's just fantastic ;D Cora
|
|
imakegarb
Member
One wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie
Posts: 3,573
|
Post by imakegarb on Jun 13, 2006 2:38:06 GMT
This very well describes what wrapped around me when I knew they'd accepted me, yup. Stayed with me all weekend and is still with me now. I actually didn't party much, sewed, was quiet, watched the war without seeing it. My friends, though, were amazing. My Norse wedge tent was making its maiden event and about a dozen of my buds were helping me put it up. Once it was up, one commented I seemed very light and happy, even more than usual, and that it was more than just my new pavilion going up. What's up? But I couldn't speak, just smiled. Then another of my buds said, "You heard from the lodge, didn't you." And I said yes, just prior to going thru gate. Now, NONE of these buds of mine is a Mason. But they all cheered and hooted and hollered, where I didn't. And it was so surreal to hear praises to the Green Man and the Goddess and Odin in the midst of all that. I am so very fortunate. I'm cool with the three-hour trip. I hear some of my soon-to-be brothers, who live near me, sometimes carpool and use the time to study. If I don't get to do that, I imagine AMTRAK would be a wonderful opportunity to be calm and contemplative as I make my journey back to lodge. Now that I know I'm accepted, even the waiting is a happiness
|
|
|
Post by corab on Jun 13, 2006 11:30:50 GMT
And it was so surreal to hear praises to the Green Man and the Goddess and Odin in the midst of all that. I am so very fortunate. Class act, those friends of yours:-) Once you've joined, try and get hold of a copy of LDH Bulletin No 28 -- our GM writes about Odin and his masonic correspondences. I always use my train journey up to read through the ritual and any other texts I may need during the day -- trains are brilliant for that. The train journey back is generally spent smiling like a loon on cloud 9 ;D Heck yeah, I remember that feeling. My friends and Colleagues noticed the transformation immediately from the moment I knew I was 'in' -- there's just something magical about that last wait. Enjoy the wait! Cora
|
|
|
Post by maat on Jun 13, 2006 23:45:58 GMT
You girls will make the UGLE fellows 'really' curious about LDH if you keep this up. I am following your conversation with joy. You think it is good now? Wait till you have been in decades.... it gets more and more exciting as you progress. As posted on another thread I have a Bro who is mid-80's and who jiggles her closed fists in excitement saying "I can't die just yet - there is sooo much more to learn! Isn't it so exciting". May you both have extremely long and fascinating Masonic careers. (I was going to say Enjoy - but you already are ) Cheers Maat
|
|
imakegarb
Member
One wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie
Posts: 3,573
|
Post by imakegarb on Jun 14, 2006 18:15:37 GMT
I've been in contact with far more "regular" Freemasons than with those from the Co-Masonic side of the house. The regulars were curious when I arrived. Which I suppose is a good thing though, when I meet one for the first time, I can't help feeling like a unicorn. Or a landmind I'm hoping that, some day, they'll just meet me the way they would meet another Freemason and not be so focused on my gender. Just as clarification, I won't be LDH. My Grand Lodge is the American Federation of Human Rights, or American Co-Masonry. I understand they split off of the International Federation, LDH, sometime back, though I'm a bit fuzzy on the details.
|
|
|
Post by corab on Jun 14, 2006 21:47:21 GMT
I've been in contact with far more "regular" Freemasons than with those from the Co-Masonic side of the house. The regulars were curious when I arrived. Which I suppose is a good thing though, when I meet one for the first time, I can't help feeling like a unicorn. Or a landmind I'm hoping that, some day, they'll just meet me the way they would meet another Freemason and not be so focused on my gender. Same here -- I was an e-Mason long before I was a Freemason, and proverbially hung out with this malecraft bunch , so some of it did rub off -- I confuse the heck out my Brn when I say I prefer to be addressed as Bro; it's just something I picked up on these fora. Having just been met by some of them as they would meet any other Freemason, I can tell you it is not impossible, and change is definitely in the air. Or to quote Stewart: "And the mountains begin to move". Dang, does that mean I won't be seeing you on our International Conference in Paris next year? Seriously though -- the Conference is open to members from other Orders, so if you happen to be around between 17-20 May 2007, give me a shout! Cora
|
|
imakegarb
Member
One wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie
Posts: 3,573
|
Post by imakegarb on Jun 14, 2006 23:57:50 GMT
I would prefer this as well and some of my male craft buds already refer to me in this way, which is very cool.
Those who know me well don't respond to me this way. But I'm meeting more and more who don't know me at all. Those first few minutes can be a little awkward while they have this sort of internal discussion with themselves that they just don't have when they meet a male Freemason.
Ooooooh, I would soooooo love to. I've received similiar invites from Fred (Parisfred and the Three Pillars and the LodgeroomUK). Unfortunately, I live on the west coast of the US and don't think I'll be traveling that far afield soon.
But thank you. ;D
|
|
|
Post by gipsyrose on Jun 28, 2006 5:19:37 GMT
"I'm to be initiated the first week in August at the Grand Lodge in Larkspur, Colorado."
Delighted to hear this news, Karen. Have a beautiful time.
|
|
imakegarb
Member
One wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie
Posts: 3,573
|
Post by imakegarb on Jul 1, 2006 4:19:54 GMT
Thanks!! ;D How are things progressing for you? I know it's been a few months since your own initiation. It's difficult for me to think much past initiation. I sometimes feel like I'm surrounded by only Masters. They are all wonderful and are so very good to and patient with me. I am so well taken care of, very spoiled really, and yet . . . I sometimes feel very, very outclassed. I think I know what it must have been like for a prospective operative apprentice facing the prospect of being the only one learning from a great master. I sooooo ache to talk to an EA or two or three or six or . . . You've mentioned a bit about settling into your lodge and still letting it all sink in. I'd love to hear how you're progressing.
|
|
|
Post by gipsyrose on Jul 13, 2006 13:12:43 GMT
Imakegard asked "How are things progressing for you?"
I've now been to two meetings since my initiation (we meet monthly). At each a new candidate was initiated, one of whom it turned out I knew, so that has been a great chance to revisit the experience. I still find that my main impulse is to sit ,watch, listen, and experience. (And read and memorise my ritual book.) I experience the ritual as having a significant energetic influence, while as I said somewhere else, the outward form seems somewhat odd and old fashioned. I find myself wondering whether the old form of language is actually necessary, but do appreciate that it's detail makes the meaning very clear.
|
|
|
Post by hollandr on Jul 14, 2006 3:41:47 GMT
gipsyrose
Some parts of the ritual may not seem necessary in terms of the logic of the process but they preserve practices from the ancient mysteries. It takes a while to detect those.
Cheers
Russell
|
|
imakegarb
Member
One wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie
Posts: 3,573
|
Post by imakegarb on Jul 14, 2006 6:27:16 GMT
A new initiation each month? Sweet!! I've heard some lodges get to do them only once or twice per year. Your lodge must be very blessed. I've heard that there's as much to learn by watching an initiation, and with each initiation you watch, as there is to learn at your own. Folks who've been Freemasons for years have told me they still see something new in initiations. Also, when I first embarked upon this path, I thought the only Freemason I knew was the one who (quite accidently) pointed me this way. However, once I got started, and especially after I'd sent in my application, I found out all sorts of my friends are Freemasons. I just never knew. So to have a bud turn up to be initiated at the same lodge . . . hey, girlfriend, great minds I've a feeling I'll be very much the same. I'm very fortunate, I think, (and in many ways, really) that I'll be initiated and then straight into a week-long conference with several opportunities to go to lodge. My lodge also meets only once per month. So to have several chances to go in a single week, I think, will help me begin to get to know . . . wow, just know. But I think Russell does have a point about the rituals becoming clearer with time. For this is so with many things. For instance, I'm rereading the Kybalion. I thought I knew this book fairly well but, parts of it, are reading to me as if they're new to me. Which means I must have missed it before, or it didn't sink in, or I didn't think it very necessary. The rituals go a way, long way, back. There's much of the wisdom of the ages in them. I'm hoping I can muster the patience to wait upon myself to understand them more fully, in time. So aside from your ritual book, do you study anything else?
|
|
giovanni
Member
odi profanum vulgus, et arceo
Posts: 2,627
|
Post by giovanni on Jul 14, 2006 6:45:14 GMT
gipsyrose Some parts of the ritual may not seem necessary in terms of the logic of the process but they preserve practices from the ancient mysteries. It takes a while to detect those. Cheers Russell exactly! Words are a mantra, that is, a rite 'by sound'. All that we performe in the Temple is "ritual". Perambulations for instance are a rite 'by gesture'.
|
|
|
Post by gipsyrose on Jul 14, 2006 14:53:52 GMT
As I reflect on this, I realise that the gestures, movements, perambulations, and positioning feel right in a very fundamental way. I 'm still not experiencing that with all the words, though I do with the intent of the words. It is also feeling right to be memorising. For someone who usually reads avidly I find that I am wanting to concentrate on becoming really familiar with the ritual, and find my resonance with it, rather than read widely at the moment. I also have used mantra a lot in other languages, so it is different to be using sound that is in my birth language.
At the moment. when I am in the ceremonies, I feel awkward, and like I am all fingers and thumbs. I find it interesting to have at this time had a head injury where I have been quite regressed. This has been in some ways a parallel experience, also very core and fundamental to my being, like being reincarnated.
|
|
|
Post by corab on Jul 16, 2006 20:59:44 GMT
I find it interesting to have at this time had a head injury where I have been quite regressed. This has been in some ways a parallel experience, also very core and fundamental to my being, like being reincarnated. You know, that's really weird to read. Just six weeks after my initiation I was thrown into the most violent epileptic episode of my life and found myself incapacitated for the better part of 6 weeks. Never experienced anything like it before and I still don't know where it came from -- all tests came back completely normal. It has completely changed me in everything I do and I too believe it was very much fundamental to my state of being -- reincarnation isn't a bad way of describing at all. Weird huh? Cora
|
|
imakegarb
Member
One wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie
Posts: 3,573
|
Post by imakegarb on Jul 20, 2006 5:04:02 GMT
Uhhhhhhh . . . I'll be sure to be very, very careful for the first few months Wow. I'm glad you two pulled thru. GR, you mentioned feeling "right." To me, this sounds like an extension of how I've felt since I've embarked on this path. I have, utterly, no rational explanation for wanting to be recognized as a Freemason. It just feels . . . right. Thanks for sharing ;D
|
|
|
Post by ingo on Jul 21, 2006 12:04:40 GMT
Cora Might I recieve a copy of the GMs speech about Odin and his masonic correspondences too, please?
Karen What a long trip! Three hours each!! Whow! There is no co-masonic lodge on the west coast? I wonder, because there should be at least at SanFran, L.A. or Seattle....even with LDH or Grand Lodge of Ancient Mysteries.... How many lodges are there at the American Fed?
|
|
|
Post by ingo on Jul 21, 2006 14:11:43 GMT
www.grandelodgeaum.orgalso with lodges in Rancho Santa Fé (CA) and Boulder (Colorado) www.chez.com/gwuGeorge Washington Union - also Co-masonic, äh...plural masonry, chartered by Grand Orient de France. There also must be one lodge of the womens Grand Lodge of Belgium in LA, called Aleithia or something like that..... I guess, if you are initiated in American Fed, you can travel around too in the West...
|
|
|
Post by ingo on Jul 21, 2006 14:16:24 GMT
I just forgot, there also must be co-masonic spanish (mexican or cuban) grandlodges at least in New Mexico, California or was it Florida? ?. SOme years ago there were members at Clipsas www.clipsas.com which came from the US...just hold on I will look in the reglement of my own Grand Lodge, the GOL, there must be a list of actual and former members of Clipsas...just one second....here we are, two masonic bodies: Gran Logia de Lengua Espanola pare los EE.UU. de Northe America Gran Logia Mixta de Lengua Espanola Maybe you can find them via Google... Best wishes
|
|
imakegarb
Member
One wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie
Posts: 3,573
|
Post by imakegarb on Jul 22, 2006 1:38:24 GMT
Hi Ingo!! My soon-to-be lodge is in Tacoma, WA., on the west coast, which is a bit closer than are the lodges you mention (though thank you much for the links, I did not know these lodges existed). I'm told our nearest sister (AFHR) lodge is in Northern California, though we do have members from there who come play with us as well ;D I do not know how many lodges the AFHR has in North America. Such information does seem to be kept rather quiet. Or it could just be that I'm so new, I just don't yet know. Information about female craft lodges recognized by the Grand Lodge of Belgium may be found here: www.womenfreemasonsusa.com/index.htmlNone of them are close enough to me to be practical on a regular basis and I do not know if they recognize my grand lodge (I suspect they do). As I understand it, as an EA, I may visit other lodges only to witness initiations. I could be wrong about that but this is what I've heard. So it may be a bit before I go visit. Gives a girl something to look forward to. Thanks again.
|
|