A Funeral for a Masonic Lodge

A new Worshipful Master in a small town spent the first four days making personal visits to each of the members, inviting them to come to his first Lodge meeting.

The following Thursday the Lodge was all but empty.
Accordingly, the Worshipful Master placed a notice in the local newspapers, stating that, because the Lodge was dead, it was everyone's duty to give it a decent Masonic burial. The funeral would be held the following Monday afternoon, the notice said.

Morbidly curious, a large crowd turned out for the "funeral." In front of the Altar, they saw a closed coffin, smothered in flowers.
After the Chaplain delivered the eulogy, he opened the coffin
and invited his Brethren to come forward and pay their final
respects to their dead Lodge.
Filled with curiosity as to what would represent the corpse of a "dead Lodge," all the Brethren eagerly lined up to look in the coffin. Each "mourner" peeped into the coffin then quickly turned away with a guilty, sheepish look.

In the coffin, tilted at the correct angle, was a large mirror.
Remember the obligation we all took my brethren attend and
support your Lodge!!!!    

----- Author Unknown

The 47th Problem of Euclid

Euclid's 47th problem or the Pythagorean theorem is a relationship between the three sides of a right triangle. 

In terms of areas, it states:

In any right-angled triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs (the two sides that meet at a right angle).
The theorem can be written as an equation relating the lengths of the sides a, b and c, often called the Pythagorean equation:

Where c represents the length of the hypotenuse, and a and b represent the lengths of the other two sides.

a² + b² = c²

Side note:
Incidentally we may wonder why pythagoras's theorm is known as Euclid's problem?

Well the answer to that is that Euclid wrote a set of thirteen books, which were called “Elements”. Each book contained many geometric propositions and explanations, and in total Euclid published 465 problems. 
The 47th problem was set out in Book 1. Now, although Euclid published the proposition, it was Pythagoras who discovered it.

Coming back to our main topic: 
A right triangle therefore will always have sides of a certain proportion known as a pythagorean triple some examples are as follows, 
( 3, 4, 5 ) (5, 12, 13) (8, 15, 17) (7, 24, 25) e.t.c.

How do we arrive at a pythagorean triple?

By calculating the difference of the squares of any two consecutive numbers which is always an odd number and it is based on such a pythagorean triple (the lowest four consecutive numbers) we arrive at 3, 5 and 7 which is masonically significant!!

To demonstrate,
take the 1st four numbers,

1, 2, 3, 4 
Calculate the squares of those numbers,
1, 4, 9, 16 

Now subtract the smaller from the larger of the squares,

4-1 =3

9-4 = 5

16-9 = 7

Masonically the significance of 3, 5 and 7 is as follows:

They are 

• The steps in the Winding Staircase which leads to the Middle Chamber of King Solomon's Temple.
• It also alludes to the number of Freemasons in each degree of Freemasonry. "Three rule a Lodge, five hold a Lodge, seven or more make it perfect. The three who rule a Lodge are the Master and his two Wardens; the five who hold a Lodge are the Master, two Wardens and two Fellow Crafts; the seven who make it perfect are two Entered Apprentices added to the former five."
• The Three Grand Masters who bore sway at the building of the first Temple at Jerusalem. Five hold a Lodge in allusion to the five noble orders of architecture. Seven or more make a perfect Lodge and have a further allusion to the seven liberal Arts and Sciences.

What would you do my Brother?

We have all come across a situation where we were in a position to help someone in need.

What have we done at those times?

In this video from ABC News's - What Would You Do show,
a man named Dominic Giamo shows us what he would do

Notice how this young man follows the teachings of our gentle craft to the letter:
"To your neighbour, by acting with him on the square, by rendering him every kind office which justice or mercy may require, by relieving his necessities and soothing his afflictions, and by doing to him as in similar cases you, would wish he would do to you."

Freemasonry Today - Free from persecution: Freemasonry and democracy go hand-in-hand

Have you ever wondered why Freemasonry is seen in some societies and not in others? 

There seems to be a correlation between our fraternity's presence and freedom.


In addition to that our requirement that candidates believe in a supreme being, our system of morality, our acceptance of only good men, then teaching them to strive for higher standards, our practice of tolerance and respect for others, our belief in equality and freedom of thought, and our caring for others in the community are all revolutionary ideas in oppressive societies and unfortunately we cannot live without them!!

Read more by clicking the link below:
Freemasonry Today - Free from persecution: Freemasonry and democracy go hand-in-hand

Movember story - Adam Garone

Freemasons are acutely aware of the need to change themselves for the better.

"...to dedicate yourself to such pursuits as may at once enable you to be respectable in life, useful to mankind..."

On being asked to return the change that was due on purchasing a bus ticket a bus conductor once said:
"Change can't be given to you every time; You only must bring the change"

Hidden in this ignorant retort is a truth that sometimes we need to become the change that we need to bring about. 

In this context, I would recommend this 17 minute talk by the guy who started the Movember movement.The goal of Movember is to "change the face of men's health".

Freemasons - The Inside Story (Episode 2)

Here is episode 2 which aired on April 1st 2013:
Please click on the link below:
http://msn.c31.org.au/media/114997-FreemasonsTheInsideStory_s01ep05_1stApr13.flv

In this episode :

• A phone in Q&A session with the Victorian Grand Master Bob Jones and the Victorian Deputy Grand Master Hillel Benedykt.
• The role of women in Freemasonry - the wives of a few Grand Masters (present and past) share their views.
• A segment showing Dr. Patrick Bowden who is the senior oncologist at the Epoworth Freemasons Hospital receiving a donation from the Fraternity on behalf of the hospital.
• A show and tell session with Bro. Jim Spreadborough on Past Master jewels.
• An talk with a younger Freemason regarding his experiences within the Fraternity.

 The rest of the episodes can be seen online as they become available on the following website:http://www.c31.org.au/program/view/program/freemasons-victoria-the-inside-story

Freemasons - The inside story (Episode 1)

The Australian TV series on Freemasonry in Victoria, that I had talked about in an earlier post has now became available online and as promised I share it here.

Here is episode 1 which aired on March 25th 2013: 
Please click on the link below:
http://msn.c31.org.au/media/114861-FreemasonsTheInsideStory_s01ep04_25thMar13.flv