F&AM Zephyr Lodge 198

10/05/2026

William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, a Freemason, Initiated in 1909—just months after taking office—Brother Taft became a member of Kilwinning Lodge No. 356 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He’s the only U.S. President to have been made a Mason while in office. Taft also served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921 to 1930.
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09/13/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19Dr3N5G41/

You’ve probably threatened someone with a Masonic degree without realizing it.

“Give him the third degree.”

Today it means relentless questioning. The kind where somebody wants answers and isn’t leaving until they get them.

The phrase has long been associated with Freemasonry’s third degree, the Master Mason degree, although the exact origin of the expression is debated. By the early 1900s, “third degree” was firmly established in American slang for an intense interrogation.

So did Freemasons actually invent the phrase?

Maybe. The Masonic connection is one of the best-known explanations, but the historical record is not strong enough to call it settled fact.

Either way, millions of people have been “given the third degree” without ever setting foot inside a Lodge.

Traveling Ashlar
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09/08/2026

09/08/2026

Freemasonry doesn’t change. Until it does. The United Grand Lodge of England is reviewing parts of its ritual, and the reason is pretty simple: some passages can be selectively quoted or taken out of context in ways that make Freemasonry appear to be something it isn’t.

UGLE says it is looking at “appropriate and sensible adjustments” to reduce those opportunities for misrepresentation. This is not a wholesale rewrite of the ritual. The work is still underway, and the resulting wording is intended to go before Grand Lodge in December for consideration.

For Brothers, that creates a genuinely interesting question. We preserve ritual because those words connect generations of Masons, but what happens when protecting the meaning of those words requires changing some of them? How much can the language change while the lesson remains the same?

Tradition has always been one of Freemasonry’s great strengths. So has its ability to survive century after century in a world that refuses to stand still. Perhaps that explains one of my favorite Masonicisms better than anything else:

There are no innovations in Masonry until there are innovations in Masonry.

This one should make for an interesting discussion among the Brethren.

Traveling Ashlar
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