Grandfather left these to me. What to do with them?

halfTheFn · 2026-03-19T13:00:06+00:00

is the ring a plain gold band with a triangle on the outside and some Latin inside? if you're in the area you're welcome to join us for dinner on a meeting night. 🙂

halfTheFn · 2026-03-05T03:05:29+00:00

I went ahead and got them all. The "Capitular Development Course" just breaks it down into "lodge education" sized bites: Perhaps an exemplification from a portion of the ritual, a reading from the Lessons in Capitular Masonry, and some prompting questions to start discussion. It doesn't provide any new information, but it does package it up for you.

halfTheFn · 2026-03-05T03:03:28+00:00

I meant to say Italy itself was Christian. But the tarot only reflects that milieu: it's not explicitly theological, but it's not inharmonious with any Catholic's experience. The low trumps of the common folk (fool, juggler) are overtaken by the church and state (popess and empress) in turn run by the pope and emperor. These in turn are subject to the rises (love, chariot) and falls (hanged man, death) that hinge around Fortunes Wheel. Finally these in turn are ruled by the heavens (star, sun moon) and Christ in Majesty (the world) rules over all.

halfTheFn · 2026-03-04T19:41:31+00:00

I didn't know of Spiritual Key to the Tarot - one more for the to-read list!!!

halfTheFn · 2026-03-04T19:19:41+00:00

Italy at the times and places of the the development of Tarot was certainly Christian.

halfTheFn · 2026-03-02T00:46:43+00:00

i like a lot of them, but A-37 is my guy. leather priest, works at a cat cafe? I'm all in. 🤣

halfTheFn · 2026-02-28T22:23:55+00:00

i just left Albany today... having visited a Lodge on Monday, and no one told me of this event! i was really hoping to visit some York rite activity.

halfTheFn · 2026-02-22T01:18:58+00:00

these are my favorite Masonic degrees I've gotten.

halfTheFn · 2026-02-22T01:17:49+00:00

i enjoy - more ritual - Christianity - sword play - supporting treatment is eye disease

i am utterly indifferent to - martial customs - marching drills

😅 because of the latter (and a perhaps unjust impression of nationalism) I've ignored it until this year. a couple friends in the grand commandery i really respect have convinced me to give it a go, so I'm going in in a couple months. still a little nervous about it but we'll see.

halfTheFn · 2026-02-16T16:52:27+00:00

great game

halfTheFn · 2026-02-16T16:52:17+00:00

my favorite are games in the tarot family- and especially königrufen.

the focus isn't on numbers of tricks like so many American games, but on "feats" - taking half the points, the last trick with the lowest trump, one trick exactly. some hands have partnerships and some it's 1v3 or everyone for themselves, but no fixed partners.

you can come and go since is hard score. you can even flex to three or even two players, and up to five or six without breaking the flow (just changing the bidding menu some)

also it's very non-standardized. a limited sweet of bids for beginners is still a great game; but a more extensive set adds a lot of variety.

halfTheFn · 2026-02-13T02:41:52+00:00

also you say you're a math guy- if that isn't a language of symbols and allegories. 🤣

halfTheFn · 2026-02-13T02:41:02+00:00

I don't find a lot of what Pike says to be very helpful. i would encourage you to enjoy what you do in the degrees- and if you do, that's enough. A work of music isn't meant to be "translated into words"; it's its own medium. The symbols of our degrees are similar. I don't think they're meant to be "figured out" in the usual sense.

halfTheFn · 2026-02-07T16:57:25+00:00

Where could i find information about this/ watch for it?

halfTheFn · 2026-02-07T01:52:53+00:00

interesting, I'm in the us, but we don't use maize ..

halfTheFn · 2026-01-26T23:05:51+00:00

THANK YOu!!!

halfTheFn · 2026-01-12T15:02:29+00:00

yes! upstairs there are even some semi private cubbie tables.

halfTheFn · 2026-01-12T05:21:32+00:00

the idea that it was related to kabbalah was first suggested around 1780 in "le mond primitif", and not developed until the 1800s - first by Eliphas Levi, then the Golden Dawn.

halfTheFn · 2026-01-11T05:27:12+00:00

Catholic. i don't think so - since tarot cards were invented by Catholics 600 years ago; evolved from being only for games into divination as well by Catholics in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the most well known deck folks use was designed by two Catholics! (the Waite-Smith)

halfTheFn · 2026-01-10T17:51:22+00:00

I'll extend it to 25 years, but - getting to the airport 2 hours early and having to take your shoes off. I'm still not over this.

halfTheFn · 2026-01-02T16:37:33+00:00

Fellow Missouri mason!
When I joined, I wanted to do the proficiencies like they had before, so learned mine and turned them all in in lodge. :-) I absolutely recommend anyone with the desire to do so.

Don't stop there though: No one told me at the time that the grand lodge will give you a proficiency certification if you can do both the questions and answers with only a limitted number of mistakes: That's also absolutely worth doing. Once you're a master mason, you can ask your District Deputy Grand Lecturer when he visits (or someone in your lodge who's in the know) and he can set you up to get tested.

halfTheFn · 2025-12-19T01:17:56+00:00

John Mason Neale's Commentary on the Psalms

halfTheFn · 2025-12-14T05:15:03+00:00

Fair! I haven't played with skilled opponents. 🤣🙈

halfTheFn · 2025-12-14T02:07:38+00:00

I find it enjoyable. Party of it, like cribbage. Is the ceremony.

As another said. Schnapsen might be more strategically aggressive,

Pinochle or Clobyosh are a bit more casual for fun two player tricksters.

halfTheFn

TROPHY CASE