We are reminded in the First Degree that the traditions and customs of our Order have always been in accord with those of the ancient Egyptian philosophers. None could be more suitable a starting place in examining this correlation than a brief exposition of the concept of Ma’at; or, the conceptualization of an ordered Universe, founded on the principles of law, morality, justice, balance and truth. Not to be confused with the Goddess of the same name, literally a personification or embodiment of these several qualities, Ma’at is at its core a way to live in harmony with both Nature and your fellow men.
Ancient Egypt, as a state, faced several problems when it came to religion and spirituality. It was comprised of numerous different cultures from all over Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle-East -- each group having conflicting belief systems which led to strife and chaos among Egypt’s people. Ma’at, as a philosophy, served to unite these several groups under a single Pharaoh who, symbolized always with an ostrich feather representing Ma’at, promised to adjudicate and legislate according to this pluralistic and fair system -- a system which pervaded all aspects of Egyptian daily life: from the floods of the Nile which ensured fertile fields, the movement of the Sun through the course of the year, to the fair and honest negotiation when buying or selling grain and even telling the truth during all social discourse. Essentially, Ma’at was the solution the Egyptians employed to counterbalance the chaos inherent in the creation and maintenance of any pluralistic and multicultural state.
So here we find ourselves, in modern times, living in a multicultural, pluralistic state which seems to be facing more and more problems as time goes by. Could the tradition of Ma’at be the solution to several of our woes? It will likely surprise none of you that this tradition has not only survived to this day and continues to flourish in our Lodges as we seek to embrace people from all religions and walks of life, cultivating harmony through excellence in our ritual work. Perhaps it is time now to see Lodge as the Egyptians saw daily life: whereas the mundane for the Egyptians was a microcosm of the patterns and changes in the Universe as a whole, it makes sense to me that Lodge can be seen subsequently as a microcosm for our greater society as a whole. In this aspect, we need to not only cultivate harmony and practice charity among our Brethren, but with all men, as the Junior Warden’s Lecture reminds us.
From the onset of our modern Democracies, Freemasonry has been there as Ma’at was to Ancient Egypt: figuratively, the mortar which holds oddly and unequally shaped blocks together to form a superstructure we hope will one day be a perfect society. As the population here in Alberta has increased over the last one hundred years, Freemasonry’s number, however, has proportionally decreased and as a result in the lessened influence we now have, social strife has gone ballistic. It may be time to call on Masons to resume their rightful place as the cultivators of harmony within society and restore the qualities of truth, balance, morality and justice just as Ma’at did for Egypt.
I would like to challenge each of you to find a way, if you have not done so already, to employ the several principles of Masonry in your daily life toward an end of cultivating harmony with everyone you encounter and being a mediator wherever you find chaos and strife.
Brightest Blessings,
W. Bro. Adam Pigeon, W.M.
Exemplar Lodge #175, Edmonton
A.F. & A.M. - G.R.A.
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