The Varieties of Fraternal Experience -By Michael Douglas, PGP WA

Every lodge is unique. That’s one of the wonderful things about the fraternal experience. We get to experience a variety of versions of a common core of practices and beliefs. Different lodges bring out different aspects of the tradition. I’d like to explore how I’ve come to think about these differences by classifying lodges into different types. Of course, any real lodge will be a combination of these. Even a “paper lodge” usually gets together for a meeting sometimes.

Thoughts on the Degree of Friendship -by Michael Douglas PG/PCP WA

It may sound odd to speak of friendship as a contract, because it seems to reference an unfeeling or legalistic business model, but in the ancient world, in the pre-lawyer culture of the patriarchs, there wasn’t much of a difference. A contract was a promise; it was a vow; it was giving your word of honor; and people would swear themselves to friendship in a way that is no longer common in our culture. Establishing a relationship of voluntary commitment in this way is the purest exercise of our freedom.

Thoughts on the Initiatory Degree -by Michael Douglas, GHP of WA

The Initiatory Degree is the doorway to Odd Fellowship. Its chief moral lesson is the consciousness of mortality. In fact, the contemplation of our own mortality is the starting point of many fraternal paths and wisdom traditions. There are different ways to do this and also different levels on which to approach it. We can do this with intention or without. We are forced to do it by external circumstances periodically in our life when friends, or relatives, or people close to us die or are in danger of death.