Ascot Masons celebrate 150 years
The Freemasons of Ascot Masonic Lodge, number 30, welcomed visitors from as far away as Houston, Texas to a special reconsecration ceremony held in Lennoxville on Saturday afternoon in recognition of that lodge’s 150th anniversary.
“This lodge actually predates confederation,” noted James Ross, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Quebec, who was present to preside over the ceremony recognizing the fraternity’s milestone. Over the course of the afternoon different members of the assembly made a point of highlighting the fact that the lodge predates the formation of Canada by several months and that its founders played an important role in separating the Grand Lodge of Quebec from the Grand Lodge of Canada.
The reconsecration ceremony, itself, involved the pouring of small amounts of corn, wine, olive oil, and salt onto a small model of a Masonic Temple. Each of the components has its own symbolic meaning (plenty, joy, peace, and friendship, respectively) and would traditionally have been scattered about the temple, but the use of the model allows for the same symbolic effect without the cleanup afterward.
Ross explained that the Freemasons trace their traditional history back to the builders of the Temple of David in Jerusalem and explained that the four components of the ceremony are used because they are thought to have been the wages of those original stonemasons. Although Ross pointed out that the various branches of the fraternity cannot actually trace the history of freemasonry back that far, he noted that Masons are known to have played a significant role in human history over the last several hundred years.
“We really don’t know when our actual beginnings are,” the Grand Master said.
“We’re not a secret society, we’re a society with secrets,” said local Mason
David Mccormack, explaining that those secrets form the basis of how Masons recognize each other and differentiate themselves from others. Mccormack, a third generation Mason, described freemasonry as a system of ethics based on allegory and symbolism, with the belief in a higher power as a central principle. While structured around historical guilds of stonemasons, he said that the groups now serve a largely philanthropic role; trying to make the world a better place, each in his own way.
Ross, for his part, highlighted the fact that many of the fathers of the American Revolution as well as revolutionaries like Simón Bolívar were known to have been Masons. The Grand Master speculated that the secretive nature of the Freemasons provided a safe space for freedom fighters to discuss their ideas and argued that the organization has played an important part in the foundation of modern democratic government as a result.
Speaking to the matter of the day, however, Ross invoked another fruitful 150 years for the Ascot Lodge.
“I’m sure none of us will be here,” the Grand Master joked.