Let there be Light

Let there be Light   

Luxor Daylight Lodge.  April 20th, 2011

It is an enormous pleasure for me to visit this lodge as my last official visit. Thanks to the brethren of Luxor I have had the most exciting, interesting and wonderful Masonic year.  From the bottom of my heart I thank you for that privilege.

It is fitting too that this visit comes at the time of the year when two of the great religions of this world celebrate and where in all ages people have celebrated the Spring Equinox and the return of the Sun. New light dawns at this season of the year and we all experience a sense of renewal and enlightenment.

Each and every one of us entered Masonry in the same way. We were blindfolded, we were led into Lodge looking, and feeling, poor, bewildered, ignorant and somewhat lost. After being led around the lodge we were asked to kneel in a slightly uncomfortable position and repeat the somewhat startling words of our obligation. Then we were asked “having been kept for a considerable time in a state of darkness, what, at the present time, is the predominant wish of our heart?”   And, after a few words we recognized as the opening verses of the book of Genesis the blindfold was removed and we could see again. In front of us lay what we were told were the great lights of Masonry, the square, compasses and volume of the sacred Law.  THEN we were allowed to rise and were shown the “lesser lights”. These were actual rather than metaphorical lights but immediately we were told they represented something other than lights.

The word “light” has many meanings and the definitions relate to one another

When that blindfold was removed many of us probably  thought that we were only having a restoration to Light as a form of energy.  Light or visible light is the portion of electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has a wavelength in a range from about 380 or 400 nanometres to about 760 or 780 nm,[1] with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz. In physics, the term light often comprises the adjacent radiation regions of infrared (at lower frequencies) and ultraviolet (at higher), not visible to the human eye.[2][3]

Primary properties of light are intensity, propagation direction, frequency or wavelength spectrum, and polarization, while its speed, about 300,000 kilometers per second in a vacuum, is one of the fundamental constants of nature.

Light is emitted and absorbed in tiny "packets" called photons, exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as the wave–particle duality.

However we were not only being restored to physical light, but to light in the sense of “enlightenment”, light meaning “the use of knowledge, intelligence, wisdom to discover and understand our World”.

And what a wonderful World it is.

This lodge is called Luxor Daylight, The word Luxor is derived from the word LUX. The lux (symbol: lx) is the SI unit of illuminance and luminous emittance measuring luminous power per area. We are named after the City of the same name.

Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the great capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the glorious city of the sun god Amon-Ra. The city was regarded in the Ancient Egyptian texts as “Waset"), which meant or "city of the sceptre" and also as "the shrine" and then, in a later period, the Greeks called it Thebai and the Romans after them Thebae. Thebes was also known as "the city of the 100 gates", sometimes being called "southern Heliopolis" ('Iunu-shemaa' in Ancient Egyptian), to distinguish it from the city of Iunu or Heliopolis, the main place of worship for the god Re in the north.

The importance of the city started as early as the 11th Dynasty, when the town grew into a thriving city, renowned for its high social status and luxury, but also as a center for wisdom, art, religious and political supremacy.[3] Montuhotep II who united Egypt after the troubles of the first intermediate period brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature. The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom in their expeditions to Kush, in today's northern Sudan, and to the lands of Canaan, Phoenicia and Syria saw the city accumulate great wealth and rose to prominence, even on a world scale.[3] Thebes played a major role in expelling the invading forces of the Hyksos from Upper Egypt, and from the time of the 18th Dynasty through to the 20th Dynasty, the city had risen as the major political, religious and military capital of Ancient Egypt.

The city attracted peoples such as the Babylonians, the Mitanni, the Hittites of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), the Canaanites of Ugarit, the Phoenicians of Byblos and Tyre, the Minoans from the island of Crete.[3] A Hittite prince from Anatolia even came to marry with the widow of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun.[3] The political and military importance of the city, however, faded during the Late Period, with Thebes being replaced as political capital by several cities in Northern Egypt, such as Bubastis, Sais and finally Alexandria.

However, it was the city of the god Amon-Ra.   Thebes remained the religious capital of Egypt until the Greek period.[3] The main god of the city was Amon, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon.

With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt, the local god Amon rose in importance as well and became linked to the sun god Ra, thus creating the new 'king of gods' Amon-Ra. His great temple, at Karnak just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity.

Amon is the name of the ancient creator god of Thebes, the city of Seqenre Tao who, it is believed was Hiram Abif

Nothing could be more appropriate for the name of a masonic lodge. The name was chosen because of our relationship to the light of day. However the Name LUXOR has long been associated with the study of human happiness and enlightenment through study and learning.

Masonry has a vital function in society. It is a place where men of faith can meet together in equality and study the concepts of equality, social responsibility and the power of human knowledge without the strictures placed upon that study by church or state. It is the only such place and men of faith have sought this nourishment throughout the ages: and they will continue to do so. I see a future where the lessons of Masonry and the search for enlightenment will become more and more necessary as our World becomes more diverse and complex and our knowledge of ourselves and our environment expands.

And so my brethren, of Luxor Lodge, my message to you is simple. At this time of the year when we celebrate The Spring Equinox, the return of the Sun and renewal let us also celebrate Light. Let us experience and practice enlightenment. Let our light shine in the darkness.

May your light shine