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On The Level Podcast
Some people think Freemasonry is on the decline, not if we have anything to say about it! Join On the Level Podcast as we explore that Esoteric side of Freemasonry. We talk about the inner workings of our Fraternity, how to apply it's teachings to your every day life to become a better man, and general current events. Join our host and guests as we explore Freemasonry together and bring our ancient craft into the modern age!
On The Level Podcast
Masonry and Misunderstanding: The Master's Carpet Controversy
We examine Edmund Ronayne's anti-Masonic book "The Master's Carpet," exploring how a dispute over Grand Lodge fund allocation after the 1871 Chicago Fire led to one of history's most influential attacks on Freemasonry.
• Born in Ireland in 1832, Ronayne moved through multiple religious organizations before joining Freemasonry
• Rose to Senior Warden and eventually Worshipful Master of Keystone Lodge No. 639 in Chicago
• Became disillusioned when he felt the Grand Lodge misused relief funds after the Chicago Fire
• Rather than working within the system, published a 400-page book revealing and distorting Masonic ritual
• His arguments about Baal worship and distorted interpretations of Masonic symbols still appear in modern anti-Masonic rhetoric
• Most anti-Masonic arguments trace back to three main sources: Templar confessions, Leo Taxil hoax, and Ronayne's work
• Understanding opponents' arguments helps Masons better respond to misconceptions
• Critical thinking is essential when examining both pro and anti-Masonic literature
Join us at the upcoming Grand Lodge Communication where On the Level podcast will be at the Three Ruffian Cigars Freedom Party on Sunday night at the local Shrine from 6-9pm.
#podcast #freemasonry #bluelodge #scottishrite #shriner #masonicpodcast
you've reached the internet's home for all things masonry. Join on the level podcast as we plumb the depths of our ancient craft and try to unlock the mysteries, dispel the fallacies and utilize the teachings of freemasonry to unlock the greatness within each of us.
Speaker 2:I have you now, let's go. Oh, a little too early in the day for that one no-transcript coming up. The trial panel recommended a reprimand and he got a free upgrade. Can you imagine that? A free upgrade to an indefinite suspension? So while Chris is going to be appealing this decision, out of an abundance of caution, we thought, hey, why not just keep on the level as safe as we possibly can? So you get me for the time being.
Speaker 2:If you have any topics you would like to see us cover here on the show, I do still talk to Chris on a regular basis. So if you have any topics you'd like to see us discover, leave them in a comment down below. We'd really appreciate the feedback. So again, guys, thank you very much. So the topic we're going to be covering today actually is actually a debate that I got into somebody online with, and the debate was about the legitimacy of Freemasonry and how old it is. Is it a bad organization? Is it a good organization? Because a lot of the times, that's the type of people you run into. So today, one of the people that I was debating actually brought a book in front of me and said hey, take a look at this, here is a master Mason turned anti Mason, and so I want to cover who this guy is, what he did, and then we're going to end off, like I said, with a little bit of housekeeping in the show. So hopefully I don't keep you too long. We'll see how things go. I don't have Chris to bounce our stupid jokes off of. So you get me. I'm sorry, this is what you get. You get the ugly bald guy.
Speaker 2:So what we're going to be covering today is a book called the Master's Carpet, or Masonry, and Baal Worship Identical and Baal worship identical. Now, for those of you who don't know who Baal is, baal is one of the three pagan gods that are found in the Old Testament or the scriptures. You can find them scattered all throughout the Old Testament, and not only that, but there are also teachers today who believe that the three Old Testament pagan gods that you see were Baal, ashtoreth and Moloch, were Bale, ashtoreth and Moloch, and that they believe that those entities, whether they be personality types or whether it be actual physical entities, that they actually travel through time so that they still are in existence. So they're either a human tendency or they are an actual entity that is still affecting mankind as of today. So this book is written by Edmund I have no idea how to pronounce that Ronayne, ronayne, that's what we're going to call him Ed. Okay, we're calling him Ed. So the three entities that we find in the Old Testament, and again I want to be clear and kind of give you a little bit of education on who these people are. I come from a Christian background, so you know.
Speaker 2:Again, a little bit of information for those who might not know the history on these characters. So the three characters that we see in the Old Testament over and over again are Baal, ashtoreth in Mesopotamia she was known as Ishtar and Moloch. You have Baal, who was the worship of abundance, the worship of productivity, those sorts of things, and he was typically represented by a bronze or metal bovine, bull, cow, one of those things. And then you have Ashtoreth, who was the one of free love, and it doesn't matter what the other party of your love looked like, it was just hey, you get absolutely everything you want from a physical and intimate standpoint. So again, everything would be on the table. We would kind of list that person. A little bit of a profane is how we would list that. And then, finally, the last one is Moloch, moloch being the Old Testament god of child sacrifice. That's where you get. Don't let your children pass through the fires of Moloch. So Moloch was about child sacrifice.
Speaker 2:But again, what a lot of people really key in on is Baal worship, because whenever the Israelites came out of Egypt, what they did is they were worshiping Baal. In Egypt, they were also worshiping the Egyptian gods, and so Baal worship. Whenever the Israelites got outside, believe the base of Mount Sinai, and they were setting up camp, they were building the altar before the Lord, all these things. You have Moses that went up onto the mountain and got a message from God. That's where the Ten Commandments come from. When he came back down with the first iteration of the Ten Commandments, when he came back down, he saw that the people had coerced Aaron to build a molten cow so that they could worship Baal, because that's what they were used to. And so Moses obviously gets angry. Moses had a bit of a temper. He gets angry and he throws the Ten Commandments, or the commandments that he got from God, down, and then it just it went haywire from there. So the Israelites were then punished by God and again we see Baal keep making, you know, reappearances generations later, all the way down to King Solomon, and after King Solomon we see Baal just making this appearance over and over again, and even still there's some people today and I'm kind of in this camp where the the Baal worship really didn't go anywhere.
Speaker 2:Whenever you think about a metal cow, or whenever you think about a golden calf or whatever the case might be, what's on Wall Street right now? There's a giant molten bull and the little girl that's standing in front of it defiantly. That was only recently added, within the last couple of decades. So you know it's. It's an interesting concept. You know the Bible says there is nothing new under the sun. I absolutely love that concept because everything that we see has been seen before. Not only has it been seen before, it has beaten people before and it has been beaten before. So it's actually a really neat concept and for me at least, that's also very comforting, because anything I face on a daily basis it doesn't matter if it's personal interactions, global stuff, it doesn't matter it has been seen before and it has been beaten before. Personally, I find that very refreshing. Let me know what you think in the comments down below.
Speaker 2:So a brief overview of our gentleman in question here, ed Edmund Ronan. Somebody let me know how to pronounce this name. I don't understand. You've got this. You got the Leo Taxel guy. His name was Marie. Why do these people pick such difficult names? Make it make sense.
Speaker 2:So what we have is we have this gentleman who was born to a Catholic family on November 5th of 1832 in Ireland. Imagine that His family immigrated to North America in 1851. So he would have been close to about 20 years old. He renounced Catholicism, became an Anglican In 1858,. He joined the Loyal Orange Order. In 1859, he left the Anglican Church which he saw was too Romanist. He left the Orange Order in 1860. He joined Harrington Lodge number 49 in Quebec but withdrew his membership when he moved to Wisconsin in 1865.
Speaker 2:By 1870, he was living in Chicago with his family and affiliated with Keystone Lodge no 639. So this was in Chicago in the 1800s, late 1800s, where he served as secretary and was elected as senior warden. The next year, at the end of 1872, he accepted election as worshipful master. But over the past year he had felt disenfranchised because of local politics and the involvement of several Masons. His resentment to the fraternity grew as he felt the Grand Lodge misappropriated donations from American Masons as they used the funds to rebuild lodges after the Chicago Fire of 1871, and Ronayne felt that they should have used it to feed and clothe the needy. In late 1874, he finally renounced Freemasonry and left the fraternity. I've also read he was expelled by the Grand Lodge of Illinois, but there are no facts or evidence to confirm this.
Speaker 2:Now what I just read from you guys is from a website called thetravelingtemplarcom. If you go to his website, check it out. This brother right here does phenomenal work of doing real deep dives into certain topics, whereas I'm trying to give you a real quick 30,000 foot view in about 30 minutes or less. So what we have with this gentleman is that he went and he wrote a book called the Master's Carpet orasonry and Baal worship identical. So as he left Freemasonry, he then decided to condemn Freemasonry in a time when being anti-Mason was actually very, very popular.
Speaker 2:Now the one thing I do want to bring up are the generational types. You guys have heard me talk about generational types before, the different archetypes that we find in them. If you haven't a real quick overview of that is and please look up the book called the Fourth Turning, and it does a fantastic job of breaking down the generational archetypes and it's shockingly accurate. I mean, whenever you talk about the archetypes, I'm what's known as the heroic archetype, which is also known as the millennial generation. Before that, it was the greatest generation. That was the last iteration of the heroic archetype and my personality type and the things that I do, the way that I think it fits into that category very, very well. Likewise, we have our Gen X brothers that are known as the nomadic archetype, and these are kind of like the laid back, easygoing guys. They just want everybody to get along. Again, brother Chris is a fantastic representative of the Generation X archetype. While he has plans, thoughts, ideas and is very good at executing those ideas, they are much more laid back and they're not as stubborn headstrong. I don't know what name you want to give it, but it is a fantastic, a fantastic read.
Speaker 2:Before them you have the baby boomer generation, which is known as the prophetic archetype, and, of course, gen Z coming up. Gen Z is known as the artist. Okay, and we'll get to that here shortly. But with the prophetic archetype, what you typically get is you get a very emotional person. Now, that person could be either emotional in a good way or emotional in a bad way. That is up to the individual as a whole.
Speaker 2:We've talked about it before that in masonry, the bulk majority of the prophetic archetype that I find are typically what are known as the gray wardens. Now the gray wardens are specifically found in the prophetic archetype. So in the baby boomer generation likewise, you have George Washington, who is a prophetic archetype. You have Winston Churchill, who is a prophetic archetype, but they were what is known as the gray wardens, meaning they were not so fixated on their own personal emotions, but they were looking at the good as a whole or the good of the whole, and so they ended up leading the younger generations, meaning the heroic archetype. They would lead the younger generation into battle, conflicts, rebuild, you know, whatever the case might be. So again you have those, those splits right there in the in the prophetic archetype, and then, of course, with Gen Z being known as the artist generation, the silent generation would be the last iteration of the artist archetype. And so what that is is you have the heroic archetype that has fought whatever this major conflict is, and then we are in a time of peace and you have a generation where their artistry can flow and it's a beautiful thing to see. And of course, you see that in the Gen Zers and, whether you like it or not, I'm not in this camp, I don't even have the app, but you have these Gen Z kids that are doing TikToks and podcasts and all this other stuff and they're actually making really good money. If they set themselves up properly, they're actually doing really well for themselves. So, again, that would be the Gen Z and of course, gen Alpha, which would be my daughter's age, is the next iteration of the prophetic archetype. So I am currently raising the next generation of the baby boomers. Pray for me, please.
Speaker 2:So, having said all that, whenever I dive into somebody who speaks anti masonry, or I dive into anybody from a historical standpoint, I like to find out when they were born. Now, this gentleman was born in 1832. From a generational standpoint, he would be the transcendental generation, but he's so close to that cutoff of being the transcendental generation that he's kind of that in-between. So think of like an older Gen Xer. That's the type of person that we're dealing. So think of like an older Gen Xer. That's the type of person that we're dealing with here From an older Gen Xer standpoint, while they are a little more laid back. They still do have some of those boomer tendencies, or that prophetic archetype tendency to where they're going to be a little more irrational if they haven't worked on themselves and exhibit any sort of self-discipline. So that's who we're dealing with here. We're dealing with a late boomer, early Gen Xer. That's the type of person that we're dealing with here. So he's going to be a little more emotional, he's going to be a little more headstrong, he's going to be a little more rash in what he does and how he thinks. So again, if you have a man that has not worked on himself, he has not used the working tools of Freemasonry, then that's going to be the type of person that he is Undisciplined, emotional, those sorts of things. So kind of put in your mind, that's who we're talking about here. But what's super interesting about it is his main gripe with Freemasonry wasn't Freemasonry. His main gripe with Freemasonry was the Grand Lodge. So it's super interesting.
Speaker 2:You have this guy who was born in 1832 in Ireland. He ends up joining multiple lodges, he becomes a member of multiple orders. But you notice a pattern with him and as an employer I look at this as well you notice a pattern that he jumps from organization to organization, which I think is super interesting, right? So this is a guy that he gets into an organization. He typically does not like the way that organization is running, so he leaves said organization and then he goes to somewhere else until he can find exactly what it is that he's looking for.
Speaker 2:The issue with this type of mindset and this type of thinking, no organization is ever going to match your ideals, thoughts and desires exactly the way you want them. Unless you open it, you run it and you're the only person who's a member of it. Why? Because there's multiple people with multiple opinions, and that's totally understandable. So what we have is he got upset because, after the Chicago fires in the late 1800s, this gentleman I can't even call him a brother because he was expelled from masonry 1800s. What this gentleman I can't even call him a brother because he was expelled from masonry.
Speaker 2:But what we have is this gentleman did not like the way that the Grand Lodge of Illinois was appropriating funds. So after the great fires, after the Chicago fires in the late 1800s, what he ends up doing is he gets mad at the Grand Lodge and he's like hey, why are you guys giving money to the particular lodges in order to rebuild the lodges when we just went through a catastrophe. We should be helping people, we should be clothing people, we should be feeding people and in that aspect I actually agree with him. I agree with him. I think more social organizations need to be doing more in order to help the common people. Here's a caveat to that the common people are always going to have a catastrophe. They're always going to have a problem. There's always going to be hungry, there's always going to be needy, there's always going to be homeless. That will never change. There is nothing new under the sun. There is always going to be. There are always going to be those parties in any advanced civilization. So what we have is he was very upset at the Grand Lodge. Okay, so what could he do at this point? He's upset at the Grand Lodge for a misappropriation of funds Interesting All right. What could he do in that aspect? Here's option number one, and this is what a Mason should do.
Speaker 2:So we talk about Masonry being the ultimate democratic process, and a brother of mine who went to Grand Lodge last year here in Florida. One of the things that he said is it was the most beautiful things that he had ever seen. Now, this is a veteran, mind you, and he's also a millennial, so he's the prophetic archetype, or sorry, he's the heroic archetype and so one of the things that he said is that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, because it was true democracy, true democracy. I didn't go to Grand Lodge last year, so I can't answer that I do plan on going this year. I'm already signed up for it. So I will see you, brothers, at Grand Lodge this year. But having said that, he was upset. Okay, so he has a fork in the road and now he can do one of two things Now the good basin and the good man.
Speaker 2:If he sees something that is going wrong with whether it be the particular lodge, whether it be his church, whether it be government, whether it be, you know, at the Grand Lodge level, or you're, in this case, the Grand Lodge of Illinois what he could do, and what he should have done, is started working his way up into leadership of that Grand Line and then make the changes from the inside. I don't know the particulars around this brothers ordeal, but I could tell you from a politics standpoint, because one of the things that said is that he got tired of the politics. From a politics standpoint, he probably got stonewalled, because that's typically how it goes in some of these organizations. Again, whether it be church, whether it be politics, whether it be lodge masonry, masonry as a whole, it doesn't matter what you typically see is unless you have an older brother that is really fixated on hey, this craft does not belong to me, it belongs to the next generation what you're going to see is a stonewalling, because if it's the same old, same old, and it's been that way for two years, five years, a decade, a lifetime, if it's been that way, well, that's the way that it's always been and that's the way that we're going to keep doing it.
Speaker 2:And that was one of my gripes with church and I to go to is, whenever you're looking at some of the doctrine lines that churches follow, it's just the way that it's always been. Well, so I don't want anything to change because it's the way that it's always been. For example, I go to a denomination called the Church of Christ. The Church of Christ believes in no instrumental worship, and they pull that from Ephesians 519, which is a New Testament scripture that states and it's between commas speaking to each other in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, sing and make melody to the Lord in your heart, and they use that as their justification to create a rule that says no instruments. The problem is, instruments aren't mentioned anywhere in that passage, but it's the way that it's always been, and I'm only telling you that as an allegory. So it's the way that it's always been, so that's the way that we're going to keep doing it and that's what you typically see with the older generation. Well, it's been around this way for 20, 30, 40, 50 years, so therefore I don't want it to change. That's what you will typically see.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that that's what this brother experienced. I'm saying that as a common human trait that I have seen time and time again. So in that aspect, I could see and I agree with that. So he probably should have worked his way into the grand line and worked, maybe even be a DDGM, maybe be a committeeman to public outreach or something like that, and then get those funds allocated and create laws and legislation to be able to help the people a little more. That's what a good man would have done, but instead what we have here is we have someone who their archetype would dictate is a little more emotional, a little more irrational. If they don't have the self-discipline that they should have, then you're going to have him do what he did, and what he did is he ends up leaving masonry, denouncing Freemasonry, and he writes something called the Master's Carpet, or Masonry and Baal Worship Identical, it's a mouthful, I agree with you.
Speaker 2:So, having said that, this is a pretty lengthy book, this gentleman, ed, who ends up writing almost a 400-page book and it's detailing a lot of the information about Freemasonry. But here's the interesting thing that I found in this as I was flipping through and I was reading about the opening and closings, the three pillars, I was reading about the prayers, all this other stuff, I saw him do what I've seen a few people do, and the one that I'm really keying in on right now is actually a guy that's found on Twitter, commonly known as X, or currently known as X, and his name is Kyle is undercover. Now, what Kyle is undercover did in the fall of 2023. So it was right before I got raised, because I got raised in December of 2023, what he ends up doing is he goes in and he secretly records an entire Master Mason degree, meaning this guy went through the entire entered apprentice degree, made his obligations swore upon the Holy Bible. Then he gets passed to the degree of fellow craft, goes in there, makes his obligation, swears on the Holy Bible. Then he gets raised to the sublime degree of master Mason, makes his obligation, swears on the Bible and then turns around, goes to the next master Mason degree and records it. So he recorded the entire master Mason degree. Again, this is a guy who is currently found on X. His screen name is Kyle is undercover or Kyle is based, one of the two, I can't remember. Either way he's a Cowan, I can't stand the guy, but either way he chopped up the Master Mason degree and it was super interesting the way that he did it. Whenever he chopped up the Master Mason degree, he would put a certain section and say oh well, this is where they ritualistically kill the candidate, twisting it to what it's not. So it would be equivalent to me saying okay, there stands a circle on my truck. Well, I'm talking about a tire. Is it a circle? Yeah, but does that describe the entirety of what it is? No, of course it doesn't. So he ends up writing this entire thing and even still he makes a couple of remarks that I really don't like.
Speaker 2:So whenever we covered the Born in Blood episode, one of the things that we talked about is the point within a circle, and that was a way to hide the square encompasses, or the Templars to hide the square encompasses. So they would send out a young man into the woods and they would say, hey, go ahead and prep an area, we're going to hold a degree tonight. So he would take two sticks of equivalent length, he would put one in the middle and then he would draw a circle okay, well right, there's your compass. And then you would take the sticks and lay them on the outside of it. There's your square. So as a way to hide the square encompasses, because the Templars, what we learned in born in blood by john Robinson 1400, at this point they were not allowed to have a written copy of the scriptures. It was illegal and it was actually punishable by the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that he says is that the point within the circle is a phallic symbol. That makes absolutely no sense to me. It's highly offensive. Kind of the same way they talk about the symbol of the square and compasses, the ones that we have on our rings and on the back of our trucks and all this other stuff that it is meant to symbolize intercourse between a male and female. So again, I'm kind of in the camp and this is kind of funny. I'm kind of in the camp that these guys are projecting a little bit Like I think somebody hugged them. Too much or not enough? Just an opinion, call me crazy, it's just an opinion. So, too much or not enough? Just an opinion, call me crazy, it's just an opinion.
Speaker 2:So, either way, he goes through and he starts to list a lot of the things that we do in our degree work, a lot of things that we do in our ritual. But then he takes certain aspects of and he says, well, no, this isn't right because of this. Well, this isn't right because of that. So he twists and distorts, misrepresents what we're doing within the lodge whenever we open and close the lodge. So again, the type of person that we're dealing with here is someone who is, again, a little more emotional. He goes through and he writes this book on again, it's called the Master's Carpet, and he references the handbook of masonry, he references Manly P Hall, he references a lot of different people in this book, but again, he takes the things that we have in masonryry and he twists them and he contorts them, which is what a lot of these anti-masons do, so whenever they talk about.
Speaker 2:Oh well, the masons have their own Bible. We do have a Bible that has a square and compass on it. Well, in the Ten Commandments, it takes out the first commandment, which is to have no gods before God of the Old Testament. Nope, nope. Every single Masonic Bible I've ever opened and I have four of them just in my possession One of them is about, I think, from the 1940s. It doesn't change anything in the Bible. It is a standard King James Bible which, again, as I've said before, is not my favorite translation of the scriptures.
Speaker 2:So again, we're going to get into a little bit more of that. Some of the naysayers of Masonry, what they're going to do, a little bit more of that, some of the naysayers of masonry, what they're going to do. We'll cover that on a future episode, but before we do that, I do want to throw it over to today's sponsor, the Three Ruffians. So we all know that Grand Lodge is coming up and Grand Lodge is going to be a lot of fun this year. So it's going to be interesting, it's going to be action-packed, it's going to be all the things you absolutely wish. So if you haven't already pre-registered for the Grand Lodge of Florida, grand Communication, make sure you register with your secretary and make sure that you're there. It's going to be a lot of fun. One of the things that, again, what we're going to be doing is we're going to be hosting a party, which we'll cover that here shortly. But if you're going to Grand Lodge, you're going to bump into some of the guys called the Three Ruffians, and that's today's sponsor, the Three Ruffian Cigars.
Speaker 2:Everybody knows Three Ruffian Cigars. You've heard us talk about it here on this podcast before. Definitely, pick you up some Three Ruffian Cigars. This is started out of Sarasota, lodge no 147, with Brother Sean Cooney, with Chris Burns, and you know what. I cannot speak highly enough about the brothers down there and what they're trying to do, and their proceeds go to helping the shrine, uh. So, again, pick up some three ruffian cigars. If you go over to their website, uh, use promo code matt for absolutely nothing to happen, absolutely nothing. Support your brothers. It's a lot of fun and, again, they're good cigars. Check out the barber pole. Um, the barber poles are arguably one of my favorites, so check them out. Three ruffian cigars and back to the program.
Speaker 2:So what we have with this guy is, again he. He makes a very emotional and a very rash decision, and what he decides to do is to write out and spell out all the stuff about freemasonry and they're evil because of this, they're evil because of that, and. And one of the things that he brought up and I've heard this mentioned by christians who are naysayers about freemasonry before is that that if something is not of Christ, then it is anti-Christ. Now, that is something that's taken out of the New Testament scriptures, something I completely agree with. If it is not of Christ, then it is anti-Christ. I mean, by definition, that's exactly what it is. Well, if that's the case, don't be a member at Costco, don't be a member at Sam's Club. So if it's not of Christ, then it's anti-Christ. So that means, unless I go exclusively to a Christian grocery store, then it's anti-Christ. So let's follow that logical argument to its end.
Speaker 2:And the logical argument to its end is that there's not much out there that is exclusively Christian other than churches. So you can't sit there and say that, oh, if it's not of Christ, then you shouldn't have anything to do with it, because you drive a truck that was made by Christians, non Christians, muslims, jews, whatever the case might be. You drive a vehicle that was made by every single one of them. You also drive a vehicle that was created on an assembly line. All those parts and everything were made by people of different faiths, walk beliefs, whatever the case might be. If you follow the argument to its logical conclusion, you're riding a horse. That's exactly what you're doing. You're riding a horse to wherever you go and it's like oh, I've got an appointment, I'm currently in Tampa and I've got an appointment in Sarasota. I'm going to saddle up my horse and I'll see you in three days. That's essentially what you're dealing with here. So again, following that argument to its logical conclusion can get to be a lot of fun. So that's what we have.
Speaker 2:Again, check out the book, because a lot of naysayers are going to pull up the master's carpet or masonry and bell worship identical Again. Just kind of thumbing through it and looking at an overview of it, it was very easy to dissect, and again, these arguments that Ed uses in this book. They aren't new arguments as a matter of fact, a lot of the arguments today that are against masons are actually very similar to exactly what he quotes here in this book. So, again, using a little bit of logic, a little bit of rhetoric we learned about that in the fellow craft degree you can very easily dissect and break down exactly what he's saying here. And it's super easy to do. I mean super, super easy, because whenever we're on the inside and we know about the degrees, we know what they represent, we know about the point within a circle, we know what the square encompasses represent, we know what the mosaic floor represents, we know that the G in the middle of the square encompasses means green beans. We know these sorts of things.
Speaker 2:It's super easy to talk to a profane who is an anti-Mason and whenever they say oh, you guys worship the devil, well, the devil is not mentioned in any of our degrees. Absolutely any of them, absolutely any of them. Will you guys worship Baphomet? Nope, also incorrect, baphomet's not mentioned in any of our degrees. So again, using that little bit of logic and rhetoric is pretty easy. But again, the key thing that I want to take from this is the personality type that this guy was. He had a disagreement with the Grand Lodge and instead of trying to work with the Grand Lodge and to get in there and to break down those barriers that is, we've done it this way for however long Instead he went the opposite route. Okay, and the opposite route was the more destructive path for him to go down.
Speaker 2:So again, whenever you're talking to some of these people, you're talking to anti-Masons. Most anti-Masons you're going to meet in life, or at least the ones that I've met in life. They've only got a surface understanding of Masonry. They've either saw a documentary on YouTube or they heard a preacher talk about it somewhere or something along those lines, and that now defines their entire belief. But whenever you have someone who can critically think and you can break it down and say, for example, my sister-in-law we've talked about this on the show before that my sister-in-law whenever I said that I was joining Freemasonry, she got very serious very quickly and she was like Matt, don't join Masons, they're bad people.
Speaker 2:What I was able to do and I've been very honest about this there was a good 10 to 20 percent of me whenever I joined Masonry. One of the things that I wanted to do is I actually wanted to see if there was anything wrong or anti-Christian, anti-Christian, anti-god, you know. Whatever the case might be, I wanted to see if there was anything nefarious within Freemasonry and instead what I found was the exact opposite, especially whenever I went through York Rite. York Rite only, I mean, further bolstered all of my beliefs. I mean it was awesome. And, of course, whenever you start to get into that mindset where you start to critically think about Freemasonry the arguments for against, you know, you start to use logic and rhetoric and lodge meetings whenever you have discussion or debate or whatever the case might be, it actually opened me up to in the Christian mindset because, again, we have thousands of denominations across the United States and across the world. It actually opened up to critically think about the scriptures and critically think about what I'm being taught on Sunday mornings and so on Sunday mornings, most churches here in the United States, you're going to get this kind of like feminine, romanticized version of the scriptures and so I'm personally I'm not crazy about that. It absolutely it speaks nothing to me, no-transcript worked up. You feel yourself start to get emotionally involved in the conversation, disengage. It is totally okay to back away from that conversation and to come back and revisit it whenever you can circumscribe your passions, Okay.
Speaker 2:So again, that is a very brief overview of Ed Ronan's I still don't know if I'm pronouncing that word properly the Master's Carpet. I know we didn't dive into the text all that much, but I wanted to tell you who this guy was. Seek out the book. You can find it for free. I'll try to post it in the comments down below. Like I said, it is a very interesting read because whenever you read through this book you're going to hear a lot of modern day anti-Mason sediment from this right here. So again, almost everything that is spoken poorly about Freemasonry we can trace back to the Confessions of the Knights Templar, the Leo Taxel hoax or this guy right here, the master's carpet. So again, the more you know about your opposition's argument, the easier that conversation goes, because whenever they say, well, you guys have goats in the back, yes, no, we don't. So, either way, seek it out, read the stuff that is anti-Masonic. Read it. It's okay to read it. But, again, critically think about it. And that's one thing that I really want to encourage you guys on is to be able to critically think on some of these things.
Speaker 2:Having said that, we have coming up the Grand Lodge Grand Communication. So again, brothers, I just want to give you a friendly heads up. On Sunday night, at the local shrine, that is there from, I believe, 6 to 9 pm, there's actually going to be a freedom party being hosted, so, and it's being hosted by Three Ruffian Cigars. So definitely hop on Facebook, seek that out. You're going to find it on the, on the on the level page. You're going to find it on the Three Ruffian page. Definitely seek that out. It's going to be a great time. Pick you up some Three Ruffians cigars while you're there. I hope to see you all at Grand Lodge. I really do. Definitely come by, shake my hand, say hi to me, tell me that you don't like me and my bald head, that I look like the dollar store. Mr Clean, you're not going to offend me at all, brothers. So that is going to be a very fast, very quick overview of the master's carpet and Ed Ronain, who was eventually expelled from Freemasonry. Some reports have said that he's been expelled from Freemasonry. So, brothers, that is all I have for you today.
Speaker 2:It's been a very quick episode. We're going to try to do a couple of more before Grand Lodge starts. We're going to be covering a wider range of topics. For example, one of the ones that I'm researching right now is Grand Lodges within the states unrecognizing one another. That has nothing to do with Prince Hall Freemasonry. So Prince Hall Freemasonry and the recognition or non-recognition thereof has been a huge point of contention between Grand Lodges between the states. But there are plenty of examples of states not recognizing other states' Grand Lodges. We're going to dive into that in the next episode, but for now, my name is Matt. I am Brother Junior Deacon from Lakeland Lodge 91. And On the Level podcast is out.
