11/17/2025
Making a Man a Mason
Ever since Freemasonry's beginning in the early 1700s, it has claimed to take good men and make them better. Most men join Masonry for that very reason. I know that I did forty years ago this month, but how does Masonry do that, or does it even do that at all?
When I joined the lodge in 1985, a large majority of our members were actively involved in the lodge's work. We had a large crowd at stated meetings and an even larger attendance during degree conferrals. Almost all of these men were prominent citizens in our community. Over the three months it took to confer my degrees, I recognized three lawyers, a judge, six County Commissioners, at least six local ministers & numerous deacons from various denominations, as well as several business owners and local prominent farmers in attendance at my degrees. They were not visitors; they were members of our lodge. It felt good to be in the presence of so many upstanding men—several of whom I went to church with but never knew were Masons.
During my first degree, two elderly school teachers, Brothers Wiley Willis and Raymond McCrory, posed a series of questions that explained the significance of each step I had taken during the first section, as well as the symbols, allegories, and emblems of Masonry and their meanings. I had no idea at the time that they were reciting their parts verbatim from the Tennessee Craftsman; I thought they were talking to me in a normal conversational tone. They were such excellent conversationalist, and that was what I thought we were engaged in, a conversation. I hung on their every word. They were true ritualist who felt and believed in the words they said, not reciters of memorized words spoken in bland monotones and staccato bursts with no emotion at all that we often hear today.
We always had a good turnout at the degrees, and our own members covered all the parts in the degree work; it was an embarrassment to have to ask someone from another lodge to come and do a part. And what a joy it was to watch and listen to some of our members as they brought their characters to life during the initiations — they truly embodied their roles. I remember listening to Brother Sherrill Knott, who was reading a passage from the 37th chapter of Ezekiel, right before I was raised on the five points of fellowship. His voice literally quivered with emotion as he read the exchange between God and Ezekiel in the Valley of the Bones. I felt a chill run up my spine.
A longtime friend, Brother A.C. Freeze, helped me with my lectures by weaving explanations about parts of Masonry and sharing anecdotes from his life experiences into the questions and answers of the lecture. He taught me a great deal about Masonry, but he taught me even more about being a good person. In the second section of the third degree initiation, A.C. played the part of the third craftsman and brought that character to life. His words were crystal clear and jam-packed with emotion. I envied his ability to bring his character to life.
The men who worked with me on my memorization work in all three degrees took the time to explain peculiar words in the lecture and clarify the meaning of some allegories and symbols that were not covered in the explanatory and stairway lectures. Today, few men even know the lectures by heart, much less the meanings of their symbolism and allegories.
Nor do very many Masons today have any idea that Masonry has always been a philosophy (the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence) and that almost all of it comes down to us through the ages from the Greek philosophers, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, but mainly Aristotle. Oddly, only Pythagoras is mentioned anywhere in the degrees, and the reference to him is aimed more at the study of Geometry than it is Philosophy or character building.
Masonry aims to help men build their character, with the ultimate goal of doing good and being a good person. We get our word character from the Greeks, which, to them, meant to stick, stamp, stain; hew, cut, carve; etch, engrave, or inlay, all of which imply a deep mark made upon something. Aristotle suggests that everything we think and do leaves a lasting impression on our conscience or our brain, that's how character is formed. Habit cuts the mark deeper, so that we remember it more easily and make it a part of who we are. We call that our character, that's how character is formed. However, not all marks etched into our conscience are beneficial.
Aristotle says that almost all men want to be good, to aim for the good in everything they do, but our desires and passions sometimes, most of the time, trip us up. Our consciences are binary; we are always offered choices when it comes to what we think, want, say, or do. Some men are guided by their wants and desires as they were when they were infants and small children, and never grow beyond them, and never form a manly character. Aristotle suggests that we should strive for the good in everything we do, and that the good should guide our choices. Are our thoughts and actions good or bad for us? Are they just or unjust in the way we deal with others? Do we consistently choose the right over the wrong? These are questions that we must always ask ourselves.
There is an old Native American parable about a struggle between two wolves inside each of us: one represents the negative traits, such as anger, fear, and hate, and the other represents kindness, fairness, and love. The question for us is, which one is the strongest, which one do we follow? And the answer is always the one that we feed.
We all have both negative and positive traits; the ones that have etched the deepest marks on our conscience are the ones we most often follow—we call them good or bad habits, which are the actions or choices that put them there. Aristotle tells us that we can erase those bad marks by developing positive habits, which will, over time, take hold more deeply, replacing a bad habit with a good one. And that's how we build a better character.
Masonry highlights those better traits in its symbols, allegories, and ceremonies, but it is up to us to choose which ones we want to follow. Being regularly in the company of good men who display those positive virtues encourages us to emulate them and slowly creates habits within us that, over time, make us better individuals.
My question to you, to all of us, is: Are you a good man worth emulating? As we develop positive virtues, we must assume the responsibility of passing them on to others. Remember the allegory of Joseph in a vision seeing a ladder reaching up into heaven in his dreams, the three principal rounds of which have the words Faith, Hope, and Charity engraved upon them? Do you remember seeing the angel partway up the ladder, reaching down, offering to raise Joseph? We must be like that angel lifting those below us to higher levels of morality, greater character, and a better way of life. Being a better man every day puts us a little higher up the ladder and makes room for the next man below us to rise.
Isn't it interesting to note that Joseph sees a narrow ladder, a way, leading up into heaven? And that Jesus points out in the Book of Matthew that the gate to destruction is wide and the way is broad, with many people following it, while the gate to life is narrow and the path is difficult, with few finding it.
As you continue your journey in Freemasonry, please pay attention to the positive virtues, make them a part of who you are, and lift other men along their journey who are following behind you.
Don't get lost in the minutiae of the work and the memorizing of words and phrases that you don't understand. And don't judge others by their ability to do the work, judge them by the character they display, by the good that you see in them. Don't waste your time searching for the good in an incorrigible person, but rather spend your time looking for good men. Those are the men that we need in Masonry. If you can't find one, then be one yourself.
