The following article was written by Jeffery M. Wilkins, PM. As of this date R.W. Wilkins is the Deputy Grand Master for the state of California and he has given his express authorization to record this article as a podcast.
Our Lodge as an Apiary
A survey of nature and the
observation of her beautiful proportions first determined me to write this paper, where I will look at the Lodge in comparison to the beehive. The
purpose will be to see aspects of a beehive in nature correlated to our Masonic
Ritual in this and in other Masonic jurisdictions. I will then analyze
leadership challenges that we face within our Lodges with a correlation to the
lifecycle of a beehive.
Looking at the Ritual for
Massachusetts, Kansas, and California, I find the Monitor and historical
lecture of the Bee Hive to be consistent in the explanation of this Masonic Hieroglyphic
Emblem. This emblem is a mythical symbol that contains truths that we can learn
from and apply in our daily lives. In our Masonic textbooks, we learn that the
beehive is an emblem of industry and recommends the practice of that virtue to
all created beings. This includes everyone and everything, from the highest
seraph in heaven to the lowest reptile in the dust. The beehive teaches us that
we came into the world as rational and intelligent beings and as such, we
should ever be industrious, never sitting down contented while our fellow creatures
near us are at want. This is especially true when it is within our power to
relieve them, without inconvenience to ourselves. We find this obligation to
provide relief imbedded in our ritual Obligations and it is a duty that we
swear to adhere to.
We also learn
that man, in his infancy, is helpless and indigent. For days, months, and
years, he is totally incapable of providing sustenance, guarding against
attack, or providing shelter. It might have pleased the Great Creator to have
made man independent of all other beings; but as dependence is one of the
strongest bonds of society, mankind were made dependent on each other for
protection and support. That dependence, along with the cement of Brotherly
Love spread by our trowels, unites our society. Within that society of friends
and Brothers, they thereby enjoy better opportunities for fulfilling the duties
of reciprocal love and friendship. Thus we learn that man was formed for social
and active life, the noblest part of the work of God. When man demeans himself
by not endeavoring to add to the common stock of knowledge and understanding,
he should be deemed a drone in the hive of nature. That drone is considered to
be a useless member of society and unworthy of our protection as Masons.
From The Early Masonic Catechisms, by Knoop, we learn that Masonic
Lodges were referred to as “hives” and that Lodge meetings were called
“swarms”. We also learn that “ A bee has in all Ages and Nations been the Grand
Hieroglyphick of Masonry because it excels all other living Creatures in the
Contrivance and Commodiousness of its Habitation or Combe…nay Masonry and
Building seems to be of the very Essence or Nature of the Bee”.1
Symbolism in Masonry
As we view Geometry as the great
and noble science and most esteemed by Masons of the Seven Liberal Arts and
Sciences, we find the geometry of the hexagon the building block of a bee hive.
Bees could have worked as individuals making custom cells to brood their young
and produce honey. They could also have chosen squares or triangles to form
their hive structure, as they can be fitted together in endless repetition.
Instead, they form the hexagons because that shape uses less wax to cover the
same area and they better fit the shape of the developing larvae. This simple
design allows for efficient strength. The wax cells are then hung back to back
in panels and those panels separated by aisles that are just wide enough for an
adult bee to access them. Bees originally evolved in the tropics and had their
combs hanging from tree limbs and exposed to the air. A couple million years
ago, one branch of African honeybees took to living in hollows of trees. They
used propolis, or caulking resin gathered from tree buds, to seal and
weatherproof their hives. This ability to construct shelter from the
vicissitudes and inclemencies of the seasons is an amazing development that
allowed them to expand from the tropics into the rest of the habitable world
where all four seasons are experienced. We see another similarity between the
shape of the rope dome bee hives and the labors of the bees constructing inside
to the domed cathedrals of Europe where our ancient Brethren labored. We see
Shakespeare making the correlation between the bee hive and the cathedrals when
he refers to the bees in the hive as “singing masons building roofs of gold”2.
As Masons, we wear our Lambskin Apron
as an emblem of innocence and as the badge of a Mason. Columella, the Roman
writer on agriculture, knew bees and human nature. He writes almost 2,000 years
ago, “If thou wilt have the favor of thy bees, that they sting thee not, thou
must avoid such things as offend them: thou must not be unchaste or uncleanly;
for impurity and sluttiness (themselves being most chaste and neat) they
utterly abhor.”3 We can see that there are more similarities between
Masons and bees with additional lessons that we can learn about living a pure
life. It is in living a pure life, emblematical in our apron, that we learn
about in our first lessons in Masonry. Here we see that our ancient writer sees
that same purity of life as essential for the bees as for us as Masons.
Brother George Washington had a couple
of connections with bees and hives that I would like to identify here. The
first is operative, as we know that Washington kept bee hives at his residence
in Mount Vernon in 1787. The second is speculative and appears on the apron
that was presented to Washington by a fellow Mason, the Marquis de Lafayette4. This apron had been embroidered in colored
silks by Madame Lafayette and presented to Brother Washington by Brother
Lafayette in August of 1784. It is beautifully decorated with several Masonic
emblems. On the flap of the apron are the letters K.S.H.T.W.S.S.T. arranged in
the form of a circle familiar to Royal Arch Masons. Within the circle is a
beehive and would seemingly indicate the Mark selected by the wearer. As this
apron was made especially for Brother Washington as a gift from Brother
Lafayette, it is evident that this emblem of the beehive, as an emblem of
industry, was a proper mark for Washington to select.
Apiary and real beehives related to our Lodges
Bees are a
fundamental contributor to all pollination. Natural pollinators, especially
bees, pollinate 75% of the 250,000 flowering plants require pollination to
reproduce. Cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world’s crops and
90 percent of our wild plants to thrive5. As we look at the
development of modern society, Masons have been at the forefront in its
creation. Lodges have acted as society’s “pollinator” for hundreds of years.
Masonic leadership founded the United States of America, created its
institutions and government, and provided the structure for the development of
the rest of the world. Lodges have been in our towns and cities, providing that
environment for the sharing of ideas and thoughts of men. In these Lodges, we
assemble and practice Brotherly Love where we are united from every county,
sect, and opinion. We meet on the level where Brothers from all economic and
social classes are able to meet and exchange ideas. Brothers of different
religious, political, and social perspectives can assemble and discuss issues
in a constructive way with an eye to society’s betterment through our Masonic
principles. This Tenent provides for a safe environment for the exchange of
knowledge and vision between men who would have remained at a perpetual
distance. As we travel around the world, we have the ability to visit and to
learn and share, returning to our native lands with new ideas and
understanding, as the bees move from one flower to another flower sharing
pollen. The results are similar in that the bees provide the spark that will
result in a harvest of fruits and vegetables while the new ideas and
interactions between Masons provide the spark to build and grow as individuals
and as leaders with in our communities to better our society.
As the Europeans first came to
America, bees were brought along. The honey bee was not native to North
America. These bees were identified by the Native Americans as the “white man’s
fly”, as described by Thomas Jefferson, and were an indicator of the approach
of the settlement by whites. So, just as we settled and moved across the United
States bringing bees with us to pollenate our fruits and vegetables, we also
build our Lodges within our communities to pollenate our society. As bees were
the harbinger of civilization, so were the Masons as leaders and developers in
the creation of the civilization in the West. [WIJE1]
Albert Einstein was quoted as
saying of bees, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man
would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no
more plants, no more animals, no more man.” I see this as a similar warning to
our society if Lodges were to disappear from our communities. Without the solid
cornerstone of leadership of Masons dedicated to the betterment of ourselves
and of our society, it is hard to imagine what sort of world we would be left
with.
Sudden
colony collapse, or Colony Collapse Disorder, involves a hive where the bees
just disappear. In the United States alone, more than 25 percent of the managed
honey bee population has disappeared since 19905. It is not known
where they go off to, but the hives end up devoid of bees. It was thought to be
the work of mites that are a parasite of the bees or a virus that infects them.
It was concluded that the true culprit was imidacloprid, an insecticide that
the bees consumed with the pollen that they collected6. Bees will
communicate in such a manner that the entire hive looks less like a thousand
individuals, but rather one fluid intelligence. A collapsing colony has no
sense of this intelligence and this directly impacts the signals transmitted
among the bees to gather nectar or pollen and to coordinate the feeding of the
young and the storing of the nectar to make honey.
Back to Lodge as Beehive, when we
look at a Lodge collapse, we see a similar phenomenon. One sign of a Lodge
collapse is when the Brethren stop coming and actively participating in the
Lodge leadership, programs, and activities. Either the leadership fails to
motivate and provide the vision and programs to generate interest and
participation, or what is provided fails to connect with the Brethren and make
them enthusiastic to be active. Once that level of participation falls below a
certain level, a Lodge finds itself having difficulty in filling the officer
positions, manning committees, and exemplifying our Ritual in a credible manner.
From there, a lodge can spiral down to collapse without vision, mission, or
purpose from the leadership and a membership willing to actively participate
within the Lodge or within the community. Other forms of external influence can
manifest in the form of piques and quarrels between the Brothers that have the
same effect of diminishing attendance and causing Brothers to not attend to
avoid the stress or atmosphere of conflict. Poor planning and execution of
Lodge events will also impact the moral of the Brethren and their families.
Ineffective communication within the Lodge family is also a key contributor to
the chaos and greatly reduces any plans ability to succeed. The leadership
needs to be able to listen to the signals from within their hive to understand
what is beneficial to the prosperous growth of the Lodge and creates a healthy
culture founded on our ideals, beliefs, and tenents.
Motivated leadership that is in
tune with the Brethren asks and then listens when creating their strategic
plans and vision for the Lodge. They align the culture of the Lodge, whether it
be a family oriented Lodge or an academic Lodge centered on research, to the
creation of goals and then creating the budgeted programs to support them.
Apathetic leadership is only able to start the process, but never follow it
through to completion. Without that critical follow through and then feed-back
loop, the plans and programs that were started may never meet the desires of
the Brethren that they were meant to fulfil. As time goes on and the culture of
the Lodge develops and changes, an active leadership must keep pace and adjust
their plans accordingly so that their Lodge DNA is constantly evolving. It may
be that a Lodge was a “family Lodge” 20 years ago. In the span of time, the
children may have grown up and moved on and young Masons without children were
Raised and started to form the leadership of the Lodge. The older members may
be in conflict with new and fresh ideas because their view of the Lodge is
locked in time and not current to the new DNA of the Lodge. This conflict is
also a source of strife and division that can collapse a Lodge. In that same
way that there may be a generational gap, it may be that there can be a
division between the Brothers that have been in the Lodge for many years and
the newly Initiated Brothers where the new Brothers are not welcomed or
included into the planning and events. That environment can become stressful
and end up driving the new Brothers away. It is a focus on the healthy
environment that creates a culture of inclusion and not one of exclusion or
“man drama”. That focus on inclusion comes from the leadership of the Lodge,
but also from the Brethren as a whole, as they live the concept of “Who best
can work and best agree”.
Bees communicate is a unique and
effective way to coordinate for the collection of nectar, the distribution of
the nectar in the hive, and to get inactive bees to forage. This is where the
collective wisdom of the hive takes over and the bees are persuaded to take
action. The first is when the bees that forage return to the hive and perform a
dance that consists of a distinctive angle, which indicates which direction to
fly, and goes on for a certain duration that indicates how far to fly. This
dance is joined by others within the hive until they head to the exit and fly
off to the identified location. They use the angle from the sun, as indicated in
the dance, to navigate to the right location. It is this “waggle dance”
communication that is performed by each returning bee that encourages more to
join in and fly to their found source of nectar or pollen. If there are too
many bees foraging and not enough to receive and store the nectar, the bees
perform a “tremble dance”. This is done by bees that return to the hive fully
loaded and have no one to hand it off to. They travel the aisles of the hive
sending their message that more receivers are needed. They also are able to
stop bees from performing their “waggle dance” to recruit more fliers. Foragers communicate to the hive that more
foragers are needed by doing a “shake dance”. This dance will be done to awaken
resting bees by shanking them. Once awakened, the bees are led by the “waggle
dance”. All of this communication is being done in the dark of the hive. The three communication methods used by the
bees align nicely with the thought of how Masons can recognize each other. We
also see that there is not one individual directing all activity, but several
working together to guide the hive. The number of bees that join in the dance
will indicate the importance of that activity. This is similar to the gaining
of consensus within a Lodge to make a change or engage in an activity.
The hive also uses this collective
wisdom when it decides when to produce another queen. This is done by the way
the brood are fed by the young adult bees working in the nursery. Nurse bees eat
the pollen that has been fermented in special cells within the hive and convert
into vitellogenin. This royal jelly made from the nutrients excreted by the
nurse bees is used as food for the brood and for the queen. Here eating this
exclusively enables her to live two to three years, as opposed to the six week
lifespan of the typical worker. The brood are fed this for a few days and then
the cell is capped. If fed extensive amounts, the larvae will develop into a
new queen. Bees feed the young a certain food made from the pollen that is
allowed to ferment so that the bacteria can break it down to a protein rich and
digestible form. The bees that forage and gather the pollen and nectar consume
honey for their sustenance because it provides the energy needed to fly out to
the flowers and back.
As we see that food is critical to
the development of the different types of bees within the hive, we can think in
terms of “food” when we describe the needs of our Brethren within our Lodge to
nourish their hunger for knowledge and we feed the new Mason with our
knowledge, culture, traditions, and Ritual. Our Candidate Coaches, our Brothers
within the Lodge, the mentors within our Fraternity all serve that same role
for the newly Initiated Entered Apprentice. They pass on our knowledge, culture,
traditions, and Ritual from mouth to ear creating new repositories in faithful
breasts. If we are diligent and work unselfishly, as our bees teach us to
emulate, we can nourish the Masonic growth and development of our Brothers and
our Lodges. This education is rich in our symbols and they start by learning of
our Tenents and of the Cardinal Virtues. They learn about the tools of their
craft in measuring and breaking stone. As they Pass into the next phase of
their development, they learn about wisdom, strength, and beauty as they ascend
to a higher level of knowledge. The lessons of architecture and of the seven
liberal arts allow the Brother to develop further. The last stage in this
specific process of Masonic transformation instructs the Brother in the tool
required for building and creating. All of the pieces are put together in the
Second Section of the Third Degree and then further related in the following
lecture. This foundation and initial nourishment establishes the new Brother
within our Fraternity and provides him the strength and wisdom to start the
next stage in his development. As the new Master Mason is free to travel the
world, he now subsists on a different form of nourishment. He is driven by his
internal desires to use his working tools within his Lodge and within his
community and is fed by his close relationships formed within his Lodge. That
mutual support and connectivity, like the network and lily work, strengthen and
support the Brother as he labors. As that Brother moves to the next level of
development, he is no longer a member of the hive, but a leader within it. The
“royal jelly” for this young leader may be the mentoring of a Past Master, the
attendance at leadership retreats, or by going to schools of instruction. Here
they grow to new levels to not only understand our ritual and its meaning, but
to teach it to others and to become that mentor themselves.
When there is overpopulation and
the resource and weather conditions are prime, the hive will create new queen
larvae in a special section of the hive. The existing queen will then take
roughly half of the workers and a bunch of drones and head out to find a new
home. In this similar fashion, we can see that new Lodges can be formed in a
similar manner. When a group within finds that it is ready to be its own entity,
it can petition to form a new Lodge. This enables a Lodge to grow and change
based on the collective wisdom of the membership of the Brethren.
Working with collective leadership
is a fundamental within a hive. Contrary to any popular belief, a hive is not
led by a Queen, but by the collective. One thought of leadership within a Lodge
is that the Master is the only leader. He is responsible for everything that
happens or fails to happen. Upon his abilities, the Lodge will either be
successful or languish. It is in this thought that we have the same
misconception that the queen bee is the ruler and source of all knowledge
within the hive. In actuality, the hive is led by the “wisdom of the crowd”
where there are no collective decisions made, but only the decisions that arise
from thousands of workers working unselfishly together. This cooperation within
the hive balances the functions of the bees that forage for nectar and the bees
that receive the nectar and process it into honey within the empty cells of the
hive. This is balanced with the bees that are building new cells or tending to
the queen or the young. All of this is done without anyone being in charge and
is possible because all are working for the hive’s best interest and not their
own. That unselfish behavior is the key to driving every decision that promotes
the wellbeing and success of the hive and supports the queen to produce the
next generations. The great cathedrals built by our Brethren were completed by men
working unselfishly for the benefit of the whole, as the bees likewise labor.
Our unselfish behavior in our Lodges should be geared toward our Lodge’s
success and our development within a Masonic community. The collective wisdom
of a Lodge Executive Committee allows for the release from a thought that the
Master has to be near superhuman for his year in the East. It is the strengths
of each of us brought together as a leadership team that we can overcome our
individual weaknesses.
So now that we have reviewed
several aspects of a bee hive, from the feeding of the young, to the way they
communicate and manage the life cycle of a hive, what can be done within our
Lodges to keep them healthy, productive, and free from the potential of
collapse? The first would be in the development of a Lodge culture that is
based upon our beliefs and tenents and is in line with the Brethren collective
wants and desires. Each Lodge is different for these exact reasons. We all seek
something as we journey through our lives in Masonry and we will gravitate to
those that are like-minded. Being present and contributing ones time, talent,
and treasure to the Craft will enable ones voice to be heard and taken into
account. Another key aspect of sustaining our healthy hive of a Lodge is to develop
leaders that motivate, guide, provide vision, inspire, and plan to achieve
their goals. These leaders can be mentored by the local wisdom within the Lodge
or the Lodge can cross-pollenate with other Lodges or external resources. They
don’t need to do it alone, as there are many other Lodges within our
jurisdiction and they are all traveling down the same path. Lastly, as
individuals, we can apply Freemasonry every day in such a way as we display our
tenents and virtues so that everyone will know that we are Masons without ever
having to say a word. In that silent but expressive way, like the bees
communicating via a “waggle dance”, the Brethren of our Lodge and in our
surrounding communities will understand what we do and how we contribute to the
betterment of our society. Living our values will be the key to subduing our
passions and improving ourselves in Masonry. It is fundamental to preserving
our Lodges as productive hives, prevents us from becoming useless drones, and
it is really what we came here to do…
Notes:
1.
Knoop, Early
Masonic Catechisms
2.
Wilson, The Hive
3.
Hubbell, A Book
of Bees
4.
Museum, Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Bro. George Washington's Apron
5.
Gabriela Chavarria, “Pollinator Conservation,”
Renewable Resources Journal, Winter 1999-2000.
6.
Jacobsen, Fruitless
Fall
References:
Grand Lodge of Masons in
Massachusetts. Official Cipher.
Boston, Massachusetts, 1992. Print
M:.W:. Grand Lodge of A.F. &
A.M. of Kansas. The Extended Cipher.
Topeka, Kansas, 1994. Print
Grand Lodge of California,
F.&A.M., California Cipher.
Richmond, VA: Allen Publishing Company, 2005. Print
Jacobsen, Rowan. Fruitless Fall. New York, New York:
Bloomsbury USA, 2008. Print
Hubbell, Sue. A Book of Bees… and How to Keep Them. New York, New York: Random
House, 1988. Print
Wilson, Bee. The Hive. New York, New York: Thomas Dunn Books, 2004. Print
Knoop, Jones & Hamer. Early Masonic Catechisms. Manchester,
Eng.: Manchester University Press, 1943
"Bro. George Washington's Apron”. The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania - Museum, Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, 2011. Web. 2/18/14. http://www.pagrandlodge.org/mlam/apron/
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