6. Lodge of Instruction

Candidates were required to attend Lodge of Instruction. A dinner preceded the event, which took place at a Lodge in Lowell.

I do not know why LOI occurs at Lowell. Probably a pooling of resources. LOI is instruction on the degrees of Freemasonry. Several Lodges attended.

The Lodge in Lowell sits across the street from Town Hall. The Lodge building is a four story high brick structure typical of mid-19th century Lowell architecture. I do not think the front entrance is used, I entered by way of what seems to be a side entrance.

Down a few steps I entered a large hall. There I was greeted by the Lodge Master. I saw my sponsor, at a table giving out tickets. I went over to greet him. I was told that I would not be paying for the meal. Those who did paid $8.

I learned later that this Lodge actually houses four separate Lodges. Each Lodge schedules separate days to meet, though from the looks of it, the building could contain several Lodge functions simultaneously. Lodges from other towns also attended this event.

I noticed a table with several other candidates, and other members of Thomas Talbot, including the Secretary, so I sat there. After a while, a meal of pasta and sausages, along with a salad, was laid out buffet-style. A waiter made sure that water and coffee supplies were maintained.

After the meal,  we went up to the Lodge Room and took seats on the North side, near the East end. Each of us took from the supply of generic aprons, and put them on. In ceremonies, the aprons are more ornate. I guess each degree has a different one,

The Lodge Room was noticeably larger than Thomas Talbot. It was hard to hear speakers at the West end.

Women attended the dinner and also attended the meeting. I wonder if at least some of the women might be allowed in as widows of Masons, not that the women that I saw were especially old. This is one more instance where I just have yet to learn what is what.

Us Candidates were there for instruction, but were brought to this first part of the meeting for a reason. A Mason who is a teacher in the Lowell school system brought in a Lowell student and a women from the school. The girl, a junior, uses a wheelchair. Alas, and horrifically, her wheelchair was stolen. Stored in the wheelchair, an electric model, was her laptop. She uses speech recognition to help her with her schoolwork, so the loss of the laptop was critical.

The woman with her explained that it took a year and a half to get the laptop through the school system. As a junior, she would likely be graduated before she could get another. The Masons presented her with a new laptop, and discussed ways to finance a new wheelchair.

This is a clear value to an organization like Freemasonry. Freemasonry is a social network. Part of that network is the opportunity to work together in such ways.

At this point, Candidates were led away to the actual instruction. Three groups were formed, by degrees. I and the other TTL Candidates were in 1st Degree. The Master of Tewksbury Lodge led us to a smaller Lodge Room. Included in our number was someone from the Lodge in Andover. If I haven’t noted it before, the fellow who was Exemplar has not attended a meeting since that ceremony, or so far as I know he hasn’t.

This room was called the Egyptian Room because of its decoration. The West wall bore a mural of the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza, and there are other Egyptian symbols and decorations. As with the whole building, things looked somewhat worn.

As was announced at the business meeting that I attended, instruction has been changed. Instead of someone lecturing us, a more dialectical approach has been installed. We were encouraged to ask questions. The Master spoke about the organization. He revealed nothing that I would deem a secret.

One thing that caught me was when he said that the floor of the Lodge Room, or maybe the Lodge Room itself, is called the Level. The import of this is that whatever is said in the Lodge Room is honest and to be trusted, that it is on the level. This is the basis of the fraternity. I could not quickly find if this derivation is correct, but the idea is good.

After about an hour of Q&A, our teacher offered to show us more of the Lodge. The exciting feature for most was the game room. It is a large room with several pool tables and several card tables. It is the site of the popular cigar dinner that someone told us about at dinner.

The cigar dinner is a full prime rib dinner. Included with the meal are six fine cigars. The game room smelled as if quite a few cigar dinners had occurred there. I have no interest in cards, pool, or cigars, so I doubt that I will partake of such an event. I appreciate the opportunity, however.

We returned to the main Lodge Room for the second part of the meeting. This consisted of more Masonic business. It seemed like there was more joking around than in TTL. It was good-natured and not inappropriate.

The meeting ended in a timely fashion.