De Molay

[ecosophia]

The other evening I was attending a Masonic lodge meeting at St. Johns Lodge #1. (This was the one in Providence; as a result of the oddities of Masonic history, not to mention the even more colorful oddities of Rhode Island, this state has two lodges named St. Johns #1, one in Providence, the other in Newport.) After we finished the ordinary business of the meeting -- bills to be paid, a petition for membership to consider, and so on -- the local De Molay chapter came in and exemplified the De Molay opening and closing ceremony, and another ritual of theirs, the Ceremony of Lights. 

De Molay? It's the Masonic youth organization for boys. It takes its name and a bunch of its symbolism from Jacques de Molay, the last grand master of the Knights Templar, who was burnt at the stake in 1314. I didn't know a great deal about it other than that, but I was mightily impressed by what I saw. 

What I saw was a group of boys, ages 12 to 17, of pretty much every skin color and ethnicity Providence has to offer -- which is saying something; it's a very diverse city -- who were courteous, well-spoken, self-possessed, at ease with each other and with a room full of Masons, and who went through their ritual with the peculiar air you get in a well-run lodge, an air of dignity without pompousness. The ritual, as lodge rituals generally do, spoke of the ideals the lodge exists to communicate with its members -- and the ideals of the Order of De Molay are political, religious, and intellectual liberty. 

All the way through the ceremony I was thinking, "Dear gods, if only more people valued those." 

Based on what I saw, I'd definitely encourage readers of mine with boys to look into De Molay and, if it looks suitable to your kids, talk to them and see if they're interested. There's also a parallel group for girls, Rainbow Girls, about which I know very little, but it might also be worth a look. In an era of turmoil and decline like this one, giving kids something other than the mass media and the schools to help guide them through the mess our society has made of youth strikes me as a very good idea. 

Comments

[auntlili]

I've taken my nephew on the tour offered by our local Masonic Temple, headquarters of the Grand Lodge of PA. He was very impressed -- well, in fairness, it's pretty jaw-dropping. More recently he was allowed to watch a movie, Full Metal Jacket, and a few comedy specials that featured rough language. He's fourteen and the next day, predictably, he accidentally dropped the f-bomb on one of his teachers. Dust up ensued. He had to write letters of apology and was very upset with himself. If he were not living in the suburbs, I'd have him over there right now.

[ecosophia]

Suburbia may not be an obstacle. At a quick glance -- I used the Grand Lodge of PA lodge locator utility -- there seem to be Masonic lodges all over the Philly suburbs, and three DeMolay chapters in the area (the PA DeMolay website is here. If he's interested and can get to one, it might be an option worth looking into.

[auntlili]

You're right; there's a chapter about 5 miles from his home. I'll see if he's interested!

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it!

[dufu]

Your post reminds me of this 2000 essay about how the Boy Scouts have maintained the ability to train young men to be upstanding citizens in the face of elite indifference. This was written before the Scouts were torn apart over the homosexual question, but I think much of it still applies.

I wouldn't link to just any of Mac Donald's articles, because her position on police shootings is highly debatable, but I think she is 100% right on the Scouts, and no amount of leftist podcasts or YouTubes has been able to dissuade me of that.

[ecosophia]

I was a Scout back in the day, and though I'm not sure how much good I did Troop #392, it did me a lot of good. Maybe it's time to start putting some emphasis back on youth groups like these.

[oakmouse]

Good for the De Molay boys! They're likely to grow up to be fine men.

[ecosophia]

All the Masons were saying to one another, "These boys are the future of Masonry -- and if that's true, we have nothing to worry about." They really were impressive.

[jpc2]

Until I read your Magical Lodge book this would not have made it to "it's Greek to me". Some how I missed out on enough info to even consider them. I knew they were around but... I seem to remember my brother-in-law was in De Molay - need to ask. My grandfather was a Mason - I didn't know until his funeral. Mother-in-law was Eastern Star and another brother-in-law is a Mason but not active.

JMG - speaking of finding lodges, I thought of you on a trip to Yellowstone last September. Took some photos of the first Masonic Lodge in Wyoming. It was in the little town of South Pass City. Not much to see - the build and a plaque. Interested?

[ecosophia]

Have you considered joining a lodge yourself? Yes, I'd be interested in seeing the photos!

[jpc2]

I've toyed with it but no action.

Suddenly reading a lot of the Stoic stuff. All because of your post a week or so ago. Some of it almost matches how I handled the Cancer. I think I'll pursue it a ways.

Here are the pictures from WY. There wasn't much to see. The one in South Park, Colorado is open to the public and being restored.

DeMolay

[(Anonymous)]

My father was a DeMolay mentor, and a Mason. But at no point in our growing up did he ever encourage us to join. He brought home many of the "boys" he mentored, won awards for his contributions to these "boys", and was very committed to the issue. I guess he wanted us to decide through the example of his "boys" that we could and would be like them. Dad had a lifelong attachment to these men and their families, as they did to him. But, still, strange that he never once mentioned that we could become one of the "boys", probably with a different mentor.

Re: DeMolay

[ecosophia]

For some reason that was a thing for a generation of Masons; they wouldn't do anything to encourage their own sons to join. It was a disaster for the Craft, and fortunately the habit seems to have dropped.

[(Anonymous)]

demolay in new york, 40 years ago, wouldn't accept me, because i couldn't say that i believed in a "god"... 8/

[ecosophia]

They still require belief in a Supreme Being -- that's true of all Masonic organizations. There are other groups that don't have that requirement, so atheists and agnostics do have options.

BTW, perhaps you can explain something to me: why did you put the word "god" in quotation marks? It's a perfectly ordinary English word, but for some reason a lot of atheists and agnostics insist on putting quotes around it, or misspelling it ("ghod" and "gawd" are the two most common misspellings I've seen). I'm curious as to the reasoning for this. Any hints?

[(Anonymous)]

Not the previous poster, but I can answer anyway - it indicates a very strong aversion. Another example of the same phenomenon is Jewish graffiti taggers having a lot of trouble drawing a swastika.

[ecosophia]

Fair enough. It reminded me so forcefully of superstitious dread -- "do not even write the name of the great bogeyman, or he'll get you!" -- that I was wondering what was behind it.

[(Anonymous)]

I was a Demolay back in my pre-College days (Berkeley. roughly 1958-1960). I didn't really bond with the other boys, or keep in touch with any of them while I was in college, but I very much liked the experience itself. It was my first exposure to ritual work in a lodge room, and the DeMolay second degree initiation ritual really impressed me with its wisdom and power. -- Over the last decade or two, I have been picking the earlier DeMolay secret ritual books when I find them for sale cheaply. With those earlier editions in hand I can see how the rituals we used (from the 7th edition) changed over time and were made more effective as they were reworked.

My own boys weren't interested, and I certainly didn't push them to join. But I would recommend the Order of Demolay to the parents of any boy who expressed an interest in it, or generally had shown a taste for ritual work.

-- Robert Mathiesen

[ecosophia]

I haven't yet seen the degree rituals -- as a Mason I can do that, and at this point probably will.

[(Anonymous)]

Do, I spent yesterday at a joint Initiatory and DeMolay degree meeting, by my sons' chapter and the neighboring chapter from two hours down the road. Well worth it. Three initiates, who were quite impressed. Also look out for your local chapter to do The Flower Talk.

Our boys traveled ten hours to open a new chapter last summer-or more accurately, re-open one that closed some two decades ago, and besides that, have previously done joint degrees with this chapter, so the two chapters work well together even though distance prohibits regular practice.

There is also Job's Daughters for girls, which is another Masonic Family organization. I was very active in that as a girl, if anyone wants a local to them contact I can probably locate one pretty painlessly.

BoysMom

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it! DeMolay has picked up quite a bit here in Rhode Island, too -- they were down to one chapter at one point, now it's four very active ones.

Unrelated but to your point about science

[(Anonymous)]

A good read that goes back to your essay about science not always being transparent, or even correct (July, 2017 I think - about 5 mistakes of environmentalists).
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/human-footprints-greece?cnis=15ef9ee1-3c87-4579-884b-c0a8d178a33b*C*1195*0*0*A

Re: Unrelated but to your point about science

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this.

Girls group...

[kayr]

I had a niece in Job's Daughters and they held their meetings in the local Masonic Lodge in Salt Lake. Lots of ceremony, but I never witnessed many of them. I helped with a dinner along with my sister-in-law, to celebrate this niece's elevation to an important office. I was under the impression that Job's Daughters was the young girls organization in the Masons. Did I misunderstand something?

Re: Girls group...

[ecosophia]

There are actually two Masonic groups for girls, Rainbow and Job's Daughters. The reason for it is that Job's Daughters was originally sponsored by Eastern Star, the Masonic women's auxiliary, while Rainbow Girls was sponsored by the Scottish Rite of Masonry; they came into being right around the same time, and neither group wanted to merge with the other, so they're still around. Rainbow accepts girls whether or not they have any Masonic connection; to join Job's Daughters you either have to be related to a Mason or get sponsored into the group by a Mason. I know even less about Job's Daughters than I do about Rainbow Girls, so didn't think of them when making the original post -- thank you for the reminder.

Re: Girls group...

[kayr]

Thanks much for the explanation.