The Oath and the Work: Escaping the Disappointment Trap

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A lot of men in Freemasonry get jaded and upset and disappointed with the craft.

And they lose their zeal for the work because they have mistaken the oath that they have

taken as a legal contract.

This is something that will take a little bit of time to kind of conceptually get through.

But let's talk about Freemasonry all over the world.

There are differences in language amongst our brethren.

There are differences in background.

There are differences in historical context.

There are differences in level of development, whatever that means.

And as you look across the entire craft, you will find that every brother is different.

Even if the ritual was identical globally, and even if the oaths we were taking were all

identical, meaning everyone repeated the same words at the same place at the same time

in the ritual, you would still never have anyone taking the same oath.

You may say yourself, while I've taken the same oath as my father or the same oath as

my brother in the lodge, but you didn't because the context you brought to that conversation

is different.

You took the oath in front of the lodge, but the oath you made was to you and to your interpretation

of the divine.

This is really important because one of the things that will happen to you, if you're

not careful, when I ask me how I know, is that you will use the oath you took as a sword

and a balance to judge and evaluate the behavior of your brothers in the lodge.

This seems like it may even be part of the mandate, like to be your brothers keeper and

to judge and evaluate and to admonish with kindness and all of that kind of thing.

But I will tell you, the moment you let it inform your behavior and your perspective, these

judgments and evaluations will be your downfall.

It will be the path to a jaded experience.

It will be the path to disappointment and you'll start playing the, well, we ought to

kind of game.

And a big part of this is because you are trying to hold other people to your standards, whatever

that is.

And a lot of folks won't even hold themselves to their own standards.

So they weaponize their own disappointment and project it onto the other people in

the lodge.

We can talk about the psychological mechanics of all that that's fairly well stated out

there on the net.

You can find the idea of projection.

But as we move through this conceptually, as we move past the oath as a concept and say,

okay, well, if I only took my oath with me, then the oath is, has to be just for me,

then it's a private oath that I have taken and it should inform my behavior.

And that's kind of the way this really should go when it comes to taking your Masonic oath.

But I also want to caution you against getting attached to outcomes, even evaluating your

own behavior from a moment by moment basis, has the potential to be a, a slippery slope to

judgment and jadedness and discontent and disappointment.

We are, I guess the underpinning of all of the oaths has to be the commitment to self

improvement as a concept.

But beyond that, if you get attached to any of the sort of impact of that or how it expresses

itself in the world, you're going to find yourself just using your oath to beat everyone

else to death.

And it's going to be a nightmare scenario.

And you see a lot of guys coming in thinking, well, I'm signing up for this concept, this,

you know, this brotherhood or what have you.

And they are using the ideas that they have of what it should be against what it is.

And if you keep looking for just a little while, you'll notice that actually all the differences

we have create opportunities for you to grow and develop and learn.

They become the tools by which you operate and do the work to become a better version

of yourself.

These disagreements, these little pecky-yoon arguments or misinterpretations or what have

you become opportunities to get closer to a guy and talk to him and figure out what they're

about and find out what part of you that you've been avoiding looking at because you don't

like the way that guy does what he does.

And so we've got some articles about this kind of thing out on our blog at blog.amacenswork.com

And we're starting to put up the Masonic symbols to help you reflect and grow and use

them to develop in your journey.

Again, no judgment.

I have no idea where you are on your path.

I have no idea what baggage you are carrying with you and how heavy that stuff is, but I

can tell you, we're all here to help each other out.

And if I can do that in any meaningful way for you, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Creators and Guests

Brian Mattocks
Host
Brian Mattocks
Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D
The Oath and the Work: Escaping the Disappointment Trap
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