John Ratcliff's Weblog

Today Saint Louis is getting hit with a good old fashioned ice storm. I didn't even bother trying to drive to the office today and have been working from home. It is supposed to keep up through the night so I will probably work from home tomorrow as well. Thanks for all of the kind words about my health. Today I am finally starting to feel a bit better. It was certainly a strange experience and not one I am looking forward to repeating again! Later, after I finish working for the day, I want fire up my new SUV and switch it into four wheel drive mode and see how sure footed it is driving up to the grocery store. I've always wanted a four wheel drive vehicle just for days like today, so I am curious to see how well it works. I'll see if I can keep the heavy beast out of the ditch. There is nothing else exciting going on in my life at the moment to share, and I haven't found any new topics to rant about. Maybe next week...

Well, as far as life experiences go I can chalk up a new one. Yesterday when I woke up and went to work I felt really weird. I had taken one pain pill the night before for my back and I thought, somehow, I was feeling residual effects. I made a joke about it with some guys at work. I didn't feel sick, I felt drugged. I sat at my desk to start work and I put my headphones on. In a very short time I suddenly felt so faint that I almost fell to the floor. Next I was immediately naseaus and went to the bathroom to throw-up. After I threw-up I generally felt better and got through the entire day of work. I left the office a little bit earlier than usual and on the way home I started nodding off to sleep and had to keep slapping myself in the face and roll down the window to stay awake till I got home. I knew I wasn't feeling right and there was no way I could possibly play tennis. I called all of the way down the sub-list and reached the second to last name on the list before I foun...

In your outward demeanor be particularly careful to avoid censure and reproach.

(Two lovely ladies out for a bachelorette party held, in part at least, at the Comedy Forum comedy club. The bridesmaid is on the left and the bride on the right. The bridesmaid on the left denotes beauty and the one on the right signifies 'to establish', alluding collectively to Gods promise to mankind that 'in beauty will I establish thine household forever.') I don't have anything to post about today, but I am going to anyway. Earlier this morning there was a discussion on a message forum I frequent about something from a few years ago. I came back to my blog to jog my memory about the event but found that I had not made any posts about it. On December 18th 2004 I had a Christmas party. I took no photographs and made no blog posts about it. So, now, I cannot remember who was there, how the party went, or what the theme was. I find this terribly disappointing and I don't want to make that mistake again. I haven't posted much in over a month yet, as I look ...

WHAT CAME YOU HERE TO DO? Tell me now, my Brother, What came you here to do? When you joined our mystic circle, Had you a purpose in your heart To be of service to your fellow man And perform your allotted part, Or came you out of curiosity Or motive personal in view? Tell me Brother of the square What came you here to do? Have you studied well the meaning Of the symbols on our chart? And learned to subdue your passions And make improvements in your art? Do you uphold the trusts On which we firmly stand, Teaching father of God And brotherhood of man? Have you willingly aided the brother When life surges were fierce and wild? Have you offered cheer and comfort To the Mason's wife, widow and child? If you have done so, my brother, You are a Mason good and true, And can give a correct answer to "What came you here to do?"

Caffeine Addiction Update It's now been about three months since I quit caffeine cold turkey. Since I did, and made my original post titled 'Caffeine Addicted World' , I get about five hits a day to this blog based on people searching for coffee addiction advice. I even received one excellent comment added to my original posting. This message today is simply to give an update. I have not had any caffeine since I originally quit. Not a single cup of coffee or soda. I may have injested a small quantity from the chocolate in some Halloween candy, but that would be the full extent of it. Other than the original withdrawal symptoms this has been the easiest thing I have every tried to quit. My wife still makes a full pot of coffee every morning and I regularily frequent the coffee shop near my office. However, all I drink is water. Massive quantities of water. The thought or smell of coffee only makes my stomach upset. It has lost of all its appeal to me. When I think of coffee ...

Brother Steve Brettell sent me the following email yesterday. I found it to be very thoughtful and interesting to read. I asked his permission to cross-post it here and he said that would be fine. I am encouraged when a public rant of mine can produce such an insightful and detailed response. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Bro. John, I read you rant on your blog with pleasure, and mild frustration. Formally (master's degree) I studied religion for a lot of my life. Undergraduate, I specialized in Judaism; graduate school, Catholic Monasticism. A problem that comes out of this kind of study is that you find yourself not speaking the same language as most of you friends and acquaintances, or, you speak the same words, and they don't have the same meaning. You read the same stuff, and see it differently. The story of the OT is much as you see it. Genocide, robbery, rape, murder starvation and all. But the OT wasn't meant to be...

After some amount of study I have come to the conclusion that Freemason ritual has nothing to do with what we think of as ritual Magic. Even though there are surface similarities between the two practices the defining distinction has to do with the purpose and intent of these ceremonies. Magic ritual attempts to affect change in the material world through will. Freemason ritual attempts to affect change on an individual Mason and, in turn, affect change on society as a whole. W.L. Wilmhurst appears to be the foremost authority on the esoteric meaning behind Freemason ritual. His first book 'The Meaning of Masonry' is fairly enlightening but his follow up on 'Masonic Initiation' lays things out very clearly. While reading 'Masonic Initiation' last night I came across a section where Wilmhurst explained the purpose behind our ceremonies most clearly. In Wilmhurst's view Freemasonry is a continuation of the ancient mystery schools of initiation. Written in the ...

The Burning Taper blog recently made a post about how some Grand Lodges are trying to restrict the free speech of their members by threatening them if they post on blogs and message forums on the Internet. At face value this is simply ludicrous. This is, most likely, a response to recent public criticism of some lodges in the South on the topic of racism; and specifically recognizing Prince Hall. Fortunately, for me, I'm not in the South and this isn't my personal battle to fight. However, let's be honest about a couple of things here. Freemasonry, Freemasons, and Freemason ideas were behind the enlilghtenment and largely at work at the American Revolution. I don't need to rehash all of this, you should know it by now. Freemasonry retains an aura of 'secrecy' about it purely for the sake of tradition. Centuries ago this level of secrecy was required to operate in and around oppressive regimes. The secrecy was also retained to keep the ritual a close held propert...

Ok, this weblog has been pretty warm and fuzzy for quite a while. I suppose it is about time I posted a rant or something. Since I happened to have a rant this morning, I have decided (perhaps against my better judgement) to cross-post it here. The topic of the rant is one of my pet peeves. My pet peeve is with esoteric Freemasons who refuse to divulge what the heck they mean when they say there is an esoteric meaning behind our ceremonies. I do have numerous books that discuss esoteric aspects of Freemasonry (Leadbeater and Wilmhurst for example) but I find little illumination there. Leadbeater comes off like a mad and crazy nut. I do find him terribly amusing though, so I read him anyway. Wilmhurst comes off sounding very inspirational but whatever esoteric realms he is referring to go whiz over the top of my head. There is a particular Freemason themed message forum on the Internet that has a whole section devoted to esoteric Freemasonry. It is filled with guys who talk about the ...