Issue #2

Written By Bryan Godwin

From the East

Hello Brothers and Friends!

I’m very excited for Anchor Bell’s first ever Second degrees, July 8th for Brother Stephen Thornton and July 15th for Brother Ryan Marayag. They have been waiting with extreme patience as they received their first degrees before the pandemic. I also want to say how amazing and moving their Pieces of Architecture were. At Anchor Bell, all of our candidates must deliver a “piece of architecture”, which is a presentation given in open lodge regarding their experience in each degree.

The officers have been working extremely hard to deliver their 2ed degrees with the reverence and solemnity these candidates deserve. I won’t be at the July stated meeting Bro. Geoff will be taking over in my place. (Edit: Bro. Thornton was passed to the degree of fellow craft this past Friday, what a fantastic ceremony, with many guest brethren from Las Vegas, as well as a brother from Korea, operating under the Grand Lodge of Scottland!)

We have two applicants right now, Mr. Joshua Bautista and Mr. James Rulison, please take the time to reach out to them and get together for a coffee and lunch, it’s all of our responsibility to guard the west gate.

The Masters BBQ will be August 20th a Saturday, time and location to be determined. I’m trying to secure and firepit and BBQ area in El Segundo at recreation park, it will be the same day as the El Segundo car show as well. So, a bonus!

Info for the August 26th Festive board is on the website, please purchase tickets as soon as you can.

Tickets will be turned off August 21st midnight, no late tickets will be able to be purchased as I have to get our order to a new caterer we are trying out.

Lastly, officers keep working on completing your ritual qualifications for next year, I’d love to see everyone qualified by elections. This includes, and I have spoken to everyone individually already, 2023’s soon to be elected Master, Senior Warden, Junior Warden, and Senior Deacon.

Thanks all and have a great summer!

Matthew Dove
Master

From the West

Greetings from the West!

I am pleased to announce that Anchor Bell Lodge will be holding its first annual Anchor Bell Retreat from September 16-18. The members of Anchor Bell will convene in the beautiful beach town of Cayucos, California, where we will have dinner at the Sea Shanty restaurant, plan for the upcoming Masonic year and enjoy followship. We have a good number of brethren already committed and are hoping for more.

We are still looking for two more members to join us, if possible, please contact me if interested!

It should be a great time!

Also, please join us for our upcoming Fellowcraft degrees on July 8 and July 15, 7:00 pm, at Liberal Arts Lodge on Westwood Blvd. We hope to see you there as our Entered Apprentices continue their Masonic journey.

Bro. Geoff Counter
Senior Warden

From the Secretary’s Desk

I would like to use this space to reflect on how good and pleasant it is for brethren to be together again after such a tumultuous two years of a pandemic. While we are still dealing with Covid 19, Freemasonry, notwithstanding, has still survived. To be performing the work of our Craft, and once again delivering degrees really ignites that spark within all Masons. To see Los Angeles Freemasonry thriving again genuinely inspires me to improve myself in Masonry. There are more degrees, more festive boards, more educational lectures and even Masonicon happening in our community right now. We are genuinely blessed to be in such a vibrant community of brothers.

W. Bro. Bryan Godwin
Secretary

Calendar Highlights:

On Birth, Life & Initiatic Experiences

Initiatic traditions throughout the ages find many similarities in their content and themes. We see throughout initiatic systems and ancient Mystery Schools themes of birth, life, death and rebirth; often in that order. Initium, the Latin root of “initiation” means “beginning”. Initiatus, the participle from the verb initiare, refers to any act at the beginning or introduction of a thing. Freemasonry is widely known as an initiatic tradition of three stages, and as such we can draw many comparisons from our particular method of initiation and that of birth, a man’s entrance into the world, and one’s birth into the world of Freemasonry.

In life, we enter this world blind. We are transported from the small dark chamber of the womb and lead outward through a passage, from a place of darkness to a world of blinding light. We are for a brief moment bare, stripped of all material and mineral contrivances, unaware of our surroundings.

Once a child has passed through that portal into the world, he finds himself still dangerously tethered to the place whence he came by the umbilical cord. Even after entering the world, a child does not begin to fully survive on his own until he is loosed from that connection by the help of those around him, cutting the cord so a new life can begin. Only then can the child be embraced by his family, both literally and figuratively as a unique and individual person.

Very much in this way, a candidate for Freemasonry who is initiated into our brotherhood is brought from the darkness of his old life into the light of a moral and upright existence within the fraternity and the arms of his brothers. He takes an allegorical journey similar to a babe entering into this existence. Allegorically and symbolically the candidate is freed from his past and brought to a new world, full of new ideas, images and wonder.

This progression is no random set of steps or an accidental occurrence. The process of birth and entering into our world and reality is a very systematic progression that starts a soul on its path, whatever that may be. The processes of initiatic traditions are modeled after this progression to help trigger something within us, causing a sense memory of sorts to help “reset” our mind and spirit into a state similar to birth. When done correctly it causes an individual  to be as open as possible to absorb new ideas, symbols and allegorical lessons to great effect. In Freemasonry our first step is to be initiated as an “Entered Apprentice”, alluding to our entrance into this new world.

All of mankind has been initiated into this physical world and can relate to the stages and steps outlined here. As Freemasons of course, we can find deeper esoteric parallels to each of these moments of birth to our own initiatic experience. Any Freemason examining and reflecting upon his first degree will find profound connections and similarities to the amazing mechanics and process of birth. By examining and reflecting upon birth we find the true fingerprints of the Architect of this world, created in his image, impossible to ignore, and worthy of all exploration and consideration.

Bryan Godwin
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Introducing "The Anchor"