Prepare for the End of the World

written by

John B Love, III

The stories of mythological lore are more than just interesting tales.  Religious stories often have a way of concealing astro phenomenon that reveal much to those learned in their meaning.  In other words the secrets of the heavens (or heavenly bodies) are indeed communicated.  

The stories were preserved and orally told to each generation to give them the knowledge of survival.  For example tales of Zeus (his Roman name Jupiter) are descriptive about the destructive and protective power of the Chief God.   Jupiter could be benevolent and protect his people or he show his wrath and send destruction.  

Looking at the size of Jupiter compared to the size of the earth in the picture below shows how, by it's shear size, comets and astroids could be blocked by the Chief Planet-thus saving humans on earth.  These massive fireballs of destruction could also enter into the inner planes of the solar system where the smaller planets revolve and rotate in a centrifical and centrifugal universal force, if the King of Planets decides to let them pass.  (Note to Masons:  these two forces operate at right angles with respect to one another.)

Comets hitting the Earth happen more frequently than one would think, which gives credence to how and why our ancestors knew of this danger and why they were so concerned.  On June 30th, 1908, 2000 square miles was blasted by a comet that landed on Earth in Tunguska, Siberia. Some can also remember the comet that hit Russia earlier this year (2013), because of the multiple videos of the comet entering the atmosphere recorded by Russian car dashboard cameras.  

Earth being protected from comets by Jupiter also happens frequently.  

In 1994 the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 "woke the world up to the probability that large comet impacts are relatively regular occurrences, perhaps happening at frequencies measured in thousands, rather than millions of years." (Knight,Lomas pg 51)

And, "comets which have orbits in the same plane as the orbit of the major planets, including Earth, are much more likely to collide with us.  The great mass of Jupiter affects a comet in one of two ways.  It can divert the comet into a hyperbolic orbit, sending it off into space, or it can capture it into a tight elliptical orbit round the sun, making it a member of the Jupiter family of comets.  This is what was about to happen to Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, but its flight path was changed so abruptly that it was shattered to pieces under the strain." (Knight,Lomas pg 51)

"This event has shown us that it is possible for Jupiter to capture a comet, break it into fragmentsand  deflect those fragments onto a collision course with the Earth.  If a comet was diverted by Jupiter into a collision trajectory with the Earth, the maximum warning we would get would be about half an orbital period of a Jupiter family comet, which equates to between eighteen months and five years." (Knight,Lomas pg 51)

From the above quotes from the book Uriel's Machine by Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas published in 1999 by Century Books Limited, it's easy to see how the imagery of Zeus consists of him hurling lighting bolts to Earth.

Again, these stories (not just this one) have specific information coded for those who know, to plan and prepare for disasters.  It helped these initiates understand their world and prepare by seeking higher ground or building vast sea vessels because they were expecting a flood.  This then is truly why the ancients look to the stars and mapped out constellation and named planets. They understood the power of the Gods and how that power has affected life on Earth. The stories tell us not only of the history of comets hitting earth, landing in the  what covers most of the earth (water) and then flooding the planet; they also tell us of how to solve this problem.  The Book of Enoch is such a story.

In the Bible the story of Enoch is limited to his generations, his unique age of 365 years (not coincidently being the approximate amount of revolutions the earth makes while completing it's journey around the Sun), and his being taken up into the heavens by God. There is not a lot of information in the present Bible about Enoch.  The Biblical Enoch is part of a genealogy that starts with Adam and ends with Noah, the patriarch of the ark that survived the flood.

Adam
Cain
Enoch
Irad
Mehujael
Methusael
Lamech
Noah

The Book of Enoch, however, gives more information about Enoch and the coming flood.  

In addition to Biblical reference and other cultures with stories of a flood, there is also a Legend of Flood in Freemasonry dealing specifically with (you guessed it) Enoch.  The 13th & 14th degrees of the system known as the Scottish Rite provides these details.  However, the most famous Masonic legend of the flood is about Enoch's great-great grand son, Lamech because it is stated that the children of Lamech, specifically Jabal and Jubal by his wife Ada and Naamab and Tubal Cain begotten by his wife Zillah, knew of the coming of the flood and wrote their sciences that they had founded in (on) Two Pillars.  

Those sciences are Geometry (Jabal), Music (Jubal), Metallurgy (Tubal Cain) and Weaving (Naamab).  But how did Lamech's other kids know enough about the approaching flood in order to realize that they must preserve their sciences for the future of humankind?  The Bible just states that Noah knew about the flood.  The Book of Enoch tells us more.  (Incidentally other Masonic degrees deal with the finding of these Two Pillars that preserved the "sciences" and thus is said to advance Freemasonry.)

This same story found in Masonic legend about the flood pertaining to Enoch was also found in the ancient Hebrew text known as the Book of Enoch.  This book was lost around the second century AD but was found by an 18th century Freemason, James Bruce.  In 1762, Bruce traveled to North Africa to specifically study the Black Hebrews known as the Falasha Jews of Ethiopia and their links with the Knights Templar.  Lomas & Knight (pg. 37-38) report that Bruce "planned to visit Armenia (the supposed landing place of Noah's Ark) to observe a transit of Venus."  But because he lost his telescope, he instead headed up the Nile to Ethiopia.  After rediscovering the Book of Enoch among the Ethiopians, he translated and was honoured by the King of France and elected a "Fellow of the Royal Society" (of whose membership includes Robert Fludd, Issac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci).

The Book of Enoch is mysterious to most Biblical scholars.  It has long been considered to by an apocalyptic text similar to how the Book of Revelations is viewed.  All though the book itself is long and has many cryptic messages, a synopsis of its key points follows.  

Enoch was very important to the Hebrew relegion.  Modern biblical research shows that their were two types of Hebrew religion: the Mosiac form that is present today (descended from Moses) and an Enochian form that has found its way into Masonic rituals (descended from Enoch).   (The Enochian form existed right up to the Roman destruction of the Temple.)  

The  Enochian form involved Venus symbolism because Venus forms "the most accurate calendar system known to observational astronomy."  (Knight & Lomas pg 104)  As it moves around the Sun with respect to Earth, Venus forms a pentagram in the sky with each side of the pentagram taking 8 years to complete.  Thus the 40 year circuit that Venus makes is a MORE accurate clock than anything man has created.

According to Knight & Lomas, "Venus is the most accurate indicator of the time of year available in the solar system.  Every eight years it marks a point when the solar calendar, the lunar calendar and the sidereal (position of the stars) calendar all coincide to within a few minutes.  Over five Venus cycles-i.e. every 40 years - it synchronizes these calendars to within a few seconds.  The eight year Venus cycle also accurately maps the moon's phases and its sidereal movements to within five hours." (Knight & Lomas pg 229)

"The sidereal calendar is important for agriculture, the lunar calendar is important to tell the tides, and the solar calendar is needed to know the length of the day and to recognize feast days." (Knight & Lomas pg 229)

A section of the Book of Enoch, called the "Book of Heavenly Luminaries" describes  specifically the patriarch Enoch being taken by the angel (or Watcher) Uriel north to a "room"  where Uriel showed him the sun rising and setting in portals (gates).  Uriel also showed the planets and stars rising and setting through this "machine".  (Mason's are familiar with the term gates-and should now have a new understanding of the term-because King Solomon's temple was also characterized by "gates".)

"The portals and windows described in a section of the Book of Enoch called the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries, are part of a description of how to build a sophisticated horizon declinometer for measuring the position of any bright object in the sky.  The device is calibrated using the known position of the sun by timing its rising and setting from the equinoxes which are easy to determine accurately."(Knight & Lomas pg 261)

Knight & Lomas actually built a Uriel's machine. It surprisingly easy to build.  For a description on how to build a Uriel's Machine see Knight and Lomas' book of the same name.

"As we built it and came to understand the celestial geometry used in its design, it was clear that it could be used as an highly accurate timing device."  (Knight & Lomas pg 261)

Knight & Lomas then find an Egyptian hieroglyphic that depicts the Uriel's Machine, complete with the rising Sun, Venus (five pointed star) and a craftsman in a position that every Fellowcraft Mason is familiar with.  That picture is also below.  It turns out that every stone circle on this planet (and there are a LOT of them) is at the very least a Uriel's machine, with the most famous being Stonehenge.

The final piece of the story in the Book of Enoch gives a warning about a comet  which based on the observation of its declination through Uriel's Machine, shows that was on a path to hit the Earth.  By standing in the center of the circular Uriel's Machine, an observer can look toward the eastern horizon before Sun rise like aiming down gun barrel sights to track the motion of celestial bodies.  The windows (portals, gates) of the machine will highlight the movement of the object as the celestial bodies change from window to window.  The celestial object's movement from the outward windows to the inner window serves as confirmation that it is on target with the path of Earth. Because a zero declination means it's headed straight for Earth.

When technology is brought to mind, the images usually aren't sticks and/or stones.  The definition of technology, however, does not give details of what the technology is made of.  This technology is simple to make and simple to use but is so advanced that it boggles the mind as to how it was conceived.

Basic Definitions for Understanding The Craft (SELF)

BODY-Pertains  to  the  physical  body  of  man.

INTUITION--That  which  is  “known”  without  the aid  of  any  of  the  senses or  usual  intellectual  processes.

MATERIAL-That  which  is  discernible  to  the  perception  by  one  or  more  of  the  senses.

PHYSICAL-Pertains  to  the  physical  body  of  man and  to  things  physical.

PHYSICAL  MAN-The  “animal  man”-the  animated  body  without  reference  to  the  “self  consciousness”  of  the  individual.

PSYCHICAL  MAN-The  physical  man  to  whom  has been  added  intellect  and  self  consciousness.

SELF-The  psychical  or  mental  man,  not  the  body, but  that  to  which  one  refers  when  he  says  “I.“’

SELF CONSCIOUSNESS-The  ability  to  be  conscious of  Self  as distinguished  from  mere  consciousness of  existence  or  simple  consciousness  as exhibited in  the  animal  kingdom.  Awareness  of  SOMETHING  within  oneself.  The  totality  of  conscious  states.

SOUL-The  Psyche.  Strictly  pertains  to  the  mental and  not  to  be  confused  with  “spirit,”  which  is NOT  SYNONYMOUS,  and  cannot  be  correctly used  interchangeably  with  “soul”  as  is  done  by orthodox  Christianity. 

SPIRIT-When  used  in  connection  with  man,  the immortal  “SOMETHING”  which  is  Life  itself.

SPIRIT-When  used  in  connection  with  Deity,  the same  “SOMETHING”  (which  is  as  close  to definition  as finite  mind  can  come).  When  used to  refer  to  a  state  or  plane  of  being,  that  state or  plane  of  existence  ABOVE  (not  directional, but  qualitative)  BOTH  the  physical  and  the psychical  planes.

SPIRITUAL  MAN-He  who  has  attained  “Cosmic Consciousness”, Spiritual  consciousness”  or the  “LOST  WORD”  whether  “within  or  without”  the  physical  body.

GOD----Mention  “God”  before  one  hundred  persons and  one  hundred  gods  that  instant  are  created. Each  one  hearing  the  word  immediately  interprets  it  according  to  his  CONCEPTION  OF GOD  and  each  such  concept  is  different.  To quote  from  that  great  source  of  wisdom,  the Bhavagad  Gita:  “Each  man’s  God-his conception  of  Deity-is  himself  at  his  best,  magnified  by  infinity.”  Used  here,  reluctantly,  for want  of  a  better  short  descriptive  word,  “God”
will  be  understood  to  mean  that  SUPREME, IMPERSONAL  INTELLIGENCE  which  we credit  with  being  the  directing  force  of  the  Universe.  In  Freemasonry  this  handicap  is partially overcome  for  us  by  the  descriptive  phrase: “SUPREME  ARCHITECT  OF  THE  UNIVERSE?  Analysis  of  the  words  “supreme”  and “architect”  in  their  full  implication  reveals  the comprehensiveness  of  this  description,  insofar  as the  finite  mind  can  attain  an  understanding  of the  Infinite.
 

-from George Steinmetz’ “The Lost Word It’s Hidden Meaning”.

Squaring the Circle the Easy Way!

Squaring the Circle has always been difficult for moderns to understand how the ancients achieved this problem using only Euclidian Geometry.  Because of the infinite nature of Pi, it has been said that it is impossible to Square the Circle.  This however is not true.  It’s easy to square the circle….by using a pyramid! Specifically the Great pyramid at Giza.

If you take the height of the pyramid as the radius of a circle that you inscribe upon the square base of the pyramid, you have then achieved the impossibility of Squaring the Circle with only Compasses, a Straightedge and ingenuity.  See how it’s done in the video below.

Egyptian Secrets and How to Square the Circle

Esoteric Lessons in Architecture

All I can really say is WOW!!!!!

It’s almost 4 hours long…..but damn it’s good!!!!!

Secrets in Plain Sight!

 

Sun of God, A Journey Through Time & Space

The only story ever told is the same story that’s always been told.  The story of the Sun of God through the 12 mansions.  The Gospel (Good News) is that it’s the story of the evolution of the soul of man.  This is why the story applies to so many Sun’s of God and not because the Devil went back in time to embarrass Jesus. 

PART1

PART 2

PART 3

The Summons

THE SUMMONS

SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.IX   March, 1931   No.3

by: Unknown

Every Master Mason understands that a summons is a command to attend the Communication of the lodge for which the summons is issued, or the occasion - funeral, trial, cornerstone laying; or other function - to which he is bidden.  Every Master Mason knows why he must “due answer make,” either by attendance, or submitting an acceptable excuse, such as illness, absence beyond the length of his cable tow, or other inability to be present.

The summons appears to be very old; older perhaps in civil law than in Masonry, and it has there no considerable antiquity.  Indeed, while the word does not appear in the Old Testament, both Numbers and Deuteronomy set forth instructions as to testimony of witnesses at trials, and by implication, if not by detailed statement, indicate that the presence of such witnesses was compulsory.  Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Bible Dictionary states that the Israelites “summoned” witnesses.

Civil summons was known in Rome, first by word of mouth, later by written citation to appear.  In Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” (written about 1386) is a “sompour” or summoner to the ecclesiastical court.  The use of summons in English procedure goes back into the dim distance where fact and mysticism meet.  It was a part of the feudal system of England and the clan organization of Scotland.  When the Baron in England or the Laird in Scotland summoned his fiefs and retainers, they answered in person.  Failure to do so meant death.  The safety of the Baron depended upon absolute fealty; the safety of the realm depended upon prompt obedience of the Laird to the call of the King.  But importance of obedience to summons goes further back than that.

When King Arthur founded his mystic, if not mythical, Knights of the Round Table, one of the inflexible rules was that every knight must appear on a fixed day in every year to report to the table his acts and adventures of the past year.  Only one excuse, other than death, was acceptable; that the Knight was on a quest that so required his attention as to render it impossible for him to appear.  He was then expected to send an excuse for his disobedience of the requirement.

In the Anderson Charges of 1772, we read:

“In Ancient times no Master could be absent from the lodge, especially when warned to appear at it, without incurring a severe censure.”

In the Constitutions of the Cooke MS., about 1490. we are told that the Masters and Fellows were to be forewarned to come to the congregations.  All the old records, and the testimony of writers since the revival, show that it was always the usage to summon the members to attend the meetings of the General Assembly or the particular lodges.

In the United States the use of the summons grows rarer with every passing year, as applied to a whole membership.  In certain Jurisdictions the Master summons his lodge once a year, as much, perhaps, to keep the idea of the summons alive, as to assemble the whole lodge for any purpose.  Occasionally lodges are summonsed regularly twice a year, a custom which doubtless grew out of the original once-a-year summons to come and pay dues, when such particular lodges decided to receive dues every six months.  In some Jurisdictions the summons is used for the whole membership only upon extraordinary occasions, as when its proposed to finance a temple, or consider some extremely important question of policy such as giving up the Charter.  In many Jurisdictions a lodge can not legally give, or surrender its Charter without the action being considered by the whole membership at a summonsed meeting.

Most jurisdictions would commonly use the summons to command witnesses at a Masonic trial.  In some the master uses the summons to get a sufficient number of brethren present for Masonic Funerals.  Unhappily, the press of modern life, the casual manner in which too many regard their Masonry, the laxness of some Masters and the “laissez faire” policy of some Grand Lodge leaders, has allowed the sanctity of the summons to be somewhat tarnished.  A Mason is Masonicaly bound to :due answer make” to a summons.  Failure to answer a summons, then, is a Masonic offense, for which the offender may be tried.

But few who are interested in their lodges desire to see Masonic trials held, if they can by any possibility be avoided.  Lodge trials often produce lack of harmony and disunion among the membership.  To prefer charges and stage a trial for the apparent trivial offense of failure to answer a summons is sometimes held to be unwise.  Yet, not always so.  From a hundred instances one is chosen at random; the Grand Master of Louisiana wrote a letter to the Master and Wardens of a certain lodge, which read in part as follows:

“Brother R, Norman Bauer, D.D.G.M., has reported to me that the proceedings of your lodge in the matter of the trial of Brother__________.  My attention is especially called to the fact that out of a membership of more than 200, only 75 brothers answered the summons to be present at the trial.  You are hereby directed to require of the brethren who were absent, to give a proper explanation of their failure to be present, and in the event satisfactory explanation is not given, you are directed to have charges filed against each of them who fails to provide you with a satisfactory explanation.  The charges are to be, “Un-Masonic Con-duct in failing to obey the summons of the lodge, in accordance with their obligation and in accordance with the requirements of Masonic Law.” Into the question as to when it is wise and right to prefer charges for failure to answer a summons, and when the best interests of all are served by a mere reprimand to the guilty absentees, this paper cannot attempt to go.  But it may be said that while failure to answer a summons may be deemed trivial, violation of an obligation cannot be so considered.  Those who look at the matter from this standpoint, say that some disciplinary action is the only wise course to pursue.

It is not possible to blame modern conditions with all of our troubles!  It is only fair to say that sometimes disrespect for law is caused either by the law or the law-giver.  Grand Lodges themselves have not always looked very far ahead in legislating upon the summons.

The General Regulations of the Craft (1721) specifically state:

“The Master of a particular Lodge has the right and authority of congregating the members of his lodge in a Chapter at pleasure, upon any emergency or occurrence, as well as to appoint the time and place of their usual forming.”

The Regulations also specifically say : “Every annual Grand Lodge has the inherent power and authority to make new Regulations or to alter these, for the real benefit of this ancient Fraternity, provided always that the old landmarks be carefully preserved.” It is, then, perfectly within the power of a Grand Lodge to set up a new regulation regarding summons, or “right to congregate the lodge.”  In some Jurisdictions this has been done, and the right of summons shared between the Master and the lodge; that is, the Master may summons when he thinks it wise; and the lodge can issue summons when it thinks wise.

But as has been proved often in the past and probably will again in the future, the power to set up a regulation is one thing; to make it right - or even legal - is another!

It is practically universal that a Master has complete charge of the work of his lodge; he is responsible for what it does; he opens and closes it at his pleasure; he says when degrees are to be conferred; he controls absolutely the debate on any question and can close it, curtail it, initiate it as he thinks wise, and can put, “or refuse to put” any motion which in his judgment is subversive of the peace and harmony of the Craft.

A lodge can only act, as a lodge, as a result of a Master’s order, or of its own order - that it, its vote.  If a lodge would spend money, a motion must put and voted upon.  If it would receive a petition, the motion to receive must be put and balloted upon.  If it would call off during a summer month, a motion to call off stated communications is put and balloted upon.  (This, of course, if the Grand Lodge permits calling off.)

Hence, in a Jurisdiction in which the Grand Lodge has vested power to issue summons in the lodge, as well in the Master, the lodge must vote upon the question, which must be put.  If a Master refused to put the question up “Shall the lodge issue a summons” the lodge could not vote upon it.  If then, some brother feeling aggrieved, should appeal from this failure to put the question, to the Grand Master or the Grand Lodge, that higher authority would have to rule upon the right of a Master to control his work, if such an authority desired to discipline the Master for failure to permit the Grand Lodge’s other behest - the power of a lodge to summons - to be exercised!  Let nothing in these words be construed as a criticism of the Grand Lodges which in their wisdom have altered the original General Regulations and given to lodges as well as to their Masters the right to summons.  A Grand Lodge is supreme within its Jurisdiction.  No matter how inconsistent with laws, usages, customs, landmarks, constitutions or immemorial practices of the Fraternity its enactments may be, within its Jurisdiction what a Grand Lodge says is law, and therefore right - or right, and therefore law!  In Jurisdictions where the Grand Lodge has ruled upon any matter, that matter has been rightly decided for that Jurisdiction - aye, even if the Grand Lodge has ruled that black is white!  In this connection it is interesting to read that actions of a Grand Lodge which has decided this matter one way, and then the other!  In 1834 the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia decided that the Master had not the exclusive right to summons the members.  In 1909 a proposed by-law of a constituent lodge was referred to the Grand Lodge committee on By-Laws.  The proposed by-law read:

“Whenever the lodge is called upon to attend the funeral of a deceased brother, the Worshipful Master shall summons a sufficient number of the resident members of the lodge, naming them in regular alphabetical order, and a brother so summoned shall be present or furnish an acceptable substitute.  No brother attending a funeral in obedience to a summons shall again be called upon until his name is reached in regular order.”

The Committee on By-Laws reported that the lodge had no right to pass this by-law, in spite of the ancient decision of 1834, on the ground that while lodges have the right, subject to Grand Lodge approval, to fix the time and place of their stated communications, they have neither right nor power to legislate as to the time or place of special meetings, which are wholly under the control of the Master.  In concluding its report, which was unanimously adopted by the Grand Lodge and thus became the law in the District of Columbia, superseding the decision of 1834, the committee said:

“The Master has the sole authority to convene his lodge in special communications; he may compel the attendance of the members by summons; he alone can exercise this power and in its exercise he is not subject to the will of the lodge because he is the judge of the exigency or emergency that may require a special meeting.  These powers are inherent in the office of Master, and no by-law is needed to validate their exercise and none is legal which attempts to curtail, control or direct them.  That their exercise has been entrusted to the Master alone is doubtless due to the fact that the Grand Lodge looks to him, and not to the lodge, to see that the business of the lodge is properly conducted.” There is good Masonic authority for this decision, which, of course, is law only in Jurisdictions which have so ruled.  Mackey’s “Masonic Jurisprudence” states:

No motion to adjourn, or to close, or to call from labor to refreshment can ever be admitted in a Masonic Lodge.  Such a motion would be an interference with the prerogative of the Master and could not, therefore, be entertained.  The Master has the right to convene the lodge at any time and is the judge of any emergency that may require a special meeting.  Without his consent, except on the night of the Stated or regular communications, the lodge cannot be congregated and, therefore, any business transacted at a called or special communication without his sanction or consent would be illegal and void.”

Simons (Principals of Masonic Jurisprudence) says:

“It is an immemorial usage - and therefore a landmark - that none but the Master (when he is present) can congregate the brethren.  Under this prerogative  the Master may call or summon a meeting of his lodge at any time he thinks proper.  The summon can be issued by authority of the Master only, while he remains in discharge of his functions, and is a preemptory order which must be obeyed, under penalty, unless the excuse of the defaulter be of the most undeniable validity.”

In one Jurisdiction where it is held that the lodge as well as the Master may issue a summons, failure to answer a summons is treated with first, a merciful, then an iron hand.  The brother who is summoned but does not answer is re-summoned to the next communication of the lodge.  If he does not then answer with a valid excuse he shall be put to trial and if found guilty, may be reprimanded, suspended, or expelled, in the judgment of the lodge.  Any intelligent student of Freemasonry must have noted that its Jurisprudence is largely concerned with what may be done, rather than what may not; with duties and responsibilities, rather than prohibitions and penalties.  The gentle way of Masonry is to set up the right, and believe that every brother will adhere to it, rather than the wrong, forbidden under penalty of some punishment.  The best way to recreate the old respect which Masons had for a summons is not by trial and punishment, but by education and persuasion.

The vast majority of men are honest.  Most brethren want to do what is right.  Most Masons want to live up to their obligations, perform their duties, give as much as they get.  The exceptions stand out more because they are exceptions than because of their number.  In a certain Jurisdiction in which it is customary to summons the membership once a year, Masters have long been distressed because so many members ignored the summons.

One Master believed that members ignored the summons from     the lack of understanding of its importance, and their own obligation to answer it.  His lodge has 191 members.  He wrote 191 letters to go with the yearly summons.  The letters were short, but they were cordial, personal, brotherly.  They explained what the summons was, why it was issued, the duty of the brother to “due answer make” and closed with the assurance of the Master’s certainty that there was no question of its being answered, once it was understood.  One hundred and sixty-five members answered in person; twenty-one replied by letter giving good reasons why they could not come!.  In large lodges a summons may be all but an impossibility.  A lodge with a thousand members could not crowd them into the usual lodge room if all responded to a summons.  Summons by such lodges presupposes a special and sufficiently large place in which to meet.  Lodges with widely scattered members - as in small towns in large and sparsely populated states - may make the summons a real hardship on members who may have to travel long distances to answer.  It is for such reasons as these that the summons is used less and less merely because it is not possible to use, and more and more, when it is used, for only vital and essential matters.  Whether used once a year or oftener by Grand Lodge rule; or seldom, and only by the discretion of the Worshipful Master, respect for the summons may be inculcated by education, by talks in lodge, by letters accompanying the summons, and by word of mouth communication from member to member.

Enforcement, by Masonic trial and punishment, is essential when Grand Lodge so orders; unless it is mandatory, the gentler way will usually be found the wiser - and the more effective because it is more Masonic!

Learn Math & Geometry from Donald Duck

Donald Duck in MathMagic Land

This is a great video for learning the uses of mathematics and geometry.  Disney released this 27 minute featurette on June 26, 1959 and was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Documentary –Short Subjects. 

This movie explains the mathematics of music with a jam session from Pythagoras himself.  We then learn about this mysterious order of the Pythagoreans who met in secret and had a secret sign.  Donald is inducted into the order and receives the sign on his hand.  We learn of the pentagram, the golden section and the golden rectangle.  These images are then shown in architecture and art.  The human body and nature’s connection to mathematics is then revealed.  Games are next to be revealed of their mathematical foundations.  From strategy games to sports to kids games, all of them are shown to have a connection to math.  Next Donald's mind is revealed to be cluttered and after some cleaning he uses the circle and the triangle to find the root of most inventions.  The potential of infinity is contemplated towards the end as the film closes with Galileo’s famous quote “Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe!”   This cartoon documentary is fantastic!  It’s worth of watching over and over again.