Excerpt from Master's Installation Speech at Riviera Lodge #780 by Wor. Harry Maslin, P.M.

Most of us here tonight have been around Masonry for a good number of years and understand what the fraternity offers its members, their families and the community. Therefore, I will not spend time extolling its virtues. But there is one thought I feel compelled to share.

I must confess there have been times while sitting in an officer’s chair or on the sidelines during our ritual work, when I scratch my head and wonder to myself... "Why do we, as grown men, sit here and continue to take part in the conferral of rituals over and over again. Isn't it enough that we have all gone through the three degrees of Masonry and learned their lessons? What is it aside from the pleasure of making new Masons we expect to realize?"

While listening to a discussion on the subject of religion and spirituality between the T.V. personality Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, the great philosopher and author of monumental works on comparative mythology, I was struck by the following exchange: Near the end of the discussion Bill Moyers asks in seeming desperation, "How do we learn to live spiritually" Joseph Campbell responded immediately in his most assured way: "That was, in ancient times and in primitive times, the business of the teacher. He was to give you the clues to a spiritual life. That was what the priest was for. Also, that was what the ritual was for. A ritual can be defined as an enactment of a myth. By participating in a good sound ritual, you are actually experiencing a mythological life. And it’s out of that, that one can learn to live spiritually".

Campbell’s remarks were startling to me. I had never heard anyone express this relationship before. I submit to you that Freemasonry provides a "good sound ritual" and therefore provides its members with the "clues" to learn to live a spiritual life. I have come to realize that the recreation of the mythological story of King Solomon and Hiram in our third degree has helped to guide me on my spiritual path and is my answer as to why I continue to sit in those chairs and participate in ritual.

As Masons, we are taught that it is very important to understand that our Masonic teachings on how to live a spiritual life are not a substitute for religion or our houses of worship. Personally I have come to look upon Masonry as an enhancement to those religious and/or spiritual quests we all maintain.