It would be helpful to read the history of Freemasonry and Anderson's Constitutions of 1723.

The Old Charges - combined Charter, Book of Constitution and Ritual - show that the Operative and early Speculative Masons were necessarily Trinitarion Christians. The Operative Lodges had, especially in mediaeval times, been intimately associated with the Church due to the employment of Masons on cathedral and church building work.
For example, the Cooke MS (c1420) says (as translated into modern English) "it behoves first principally to love God and Holy Church and All Hallows". All Hallows refers to the Saints. The real change came in 1723 in the First Charge of Dr Anderson's Constitutions 'Concerning God and Religion' which states "Tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them (Masons) to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves". The wording was changed in 1815 to read "Let a man's religion or mode of worship be what it may, he is not excluded from the Order provided he believe in the Glorious Architect of Heaven and Earth and practice the sacred duties of morality".

This Charge had the effect of "dechristianising" the Craft, thereby enabling Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists etc. to become members.

The Charge After Initiation states that the discussion on all topics of a political or religious nature is forbidden in the Lodge.

The general effect of the changes made is to abolish the introduction of [b]sectarian[b] religion into our Lodges and to enable men of all religions to meet on the common ground of a belief in a Supreme Being - the G.A.O.T.U.

The whole is silly. We too phrase it as Cora's obedience does.

I fussed over that one in my mind for quite a while.
We only have one volume on the altar, the Bible. There are others present at the Orator's position in Lodge.

What I had concluded, and was never corrected upon by my mentor was that Bible, the Qu'ran and the Tao Te Ching present in lodge. Collectively they are the volumes of lore. My volume of Law is the Bible. There is light to be had from them all.

I even enjoy reading even from the Book of the Dead (AKA Book of Coming Forth by Day, AKA Book of emerging forth into the Light) which is an ancient Egyptian text of spells. Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that these are not spells as in witchcraft, but rather more like a hymn giving a lesson on how to lead our daily lives so we may continue to live in the afterworld. (…what Christians think of as heaven..)

Seems to me that it is all different ways, and languages which all say the same thing. Even Jesus said there were many Mansions in Heaven. The text of the book really does not reveal what he really meant other than to believe in God and to believe in Him... Jesus definitely brought us a very powerful lesson. It is a lesson brought to us in such a form that not even all Christians can agree on its meaning....


...............and there are many Mansions.
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Darylee, 3°; (I am a women in Ohio, USA)
My posts are my personal opinions and not of my Masonic Loge, Grandlodge or any other Masonic jurisdiction. American Co-Masonry; The American Federation of Human Rights: http://www.co-masonry.org/

There are many lodges, that are female-only. Some are co-ed. Depends on the lodge.