http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2007/05/return-of-masons.html A modern Pagan perspective Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:46:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2007/05/return-of-masons.html#comment-1049 Masonic Traveler Mon, 07 May 2007 16:26:00 +0000 http://patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2007/05/return-of-the-masons.html#comment-1049 Listening and reading the piece, I had to disagree in some aspects in that it is getting back to something it never left. The rituals are the same as they have been for the last 300+ years, with the difference being a deeper interest in what they mean. The beauty of Freemasonry is that it doesn't tie itself to one faith, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc...If any real doctrinal system is to be looked at, my feeling is that it is Hermetic, evolved at the height of the pre Renaissance period, but evolving something much older. In the end, the initiate tradition is a means to open the mind of the candidate to something beyond the scope of what they run into in their day to day dealings. Listening and reading the piece, I had to disagree in some aspects in that it is getting back to something it never left. The rituals are the same as they have been for the last 300+ years, with the difference being a deeper interest in what they mean. The beauty of Freemasonry is that it doesn’t tie itself to one faith, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc…If any real doctrinal system is to be looked at, my feeling is that it is Hermetic, evolved at the height of the pre Renaissance period, but evolving something much older. In the end, the initiate tradition is a means to open the mind of the candidate to something beyond the scope of what they run into in their day to day dealings.

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