“Light comes, and light goes, but the Light of Freemasonry never wanes.”
Calendar:
October
10/01/25 (Wed) Regular Communication
10/04/25 (Sat) “Boots on the Ground” Party at Zal Gaz
10/15/25 (Wed) Chili cookoff followed by Special: EA Degree
10/22/25 (Wed) Master’s Table: at Metzger’s
10/25/25 (Sat) Tailgate at James L. Crawford Elks — UM vs. MSU
10/29/25 (Wed) Special: MM Degree
November
11/05/25 (Wed) Annual Communication
11/19/25 (Wed) Lodge Service Night
Greetings, Brothers — and a very Happy 6025th Birthday, World!
Whaaat?? OK — I should be more precise — Happy 6029th birthday.
At this point, you’re probably shaking your heads: “Our WM has lost his marbles”…
But in the words of the legendary Lee Corso — “Not so fast, my friend!”
Apparently, through detailed research and some literal interpretation of biblical sources, an Irish Archbishop named James Ussher (1581–1656) has calculated the creation date of the world to be October 23rd, 4004 BC. He called it “Anno Lucis”, the Latin phrase meaning "Year of Light”. We, as free and accepted masons, have adopted Ussher's calculations, but rounded 4004 BC to 4000 BC for simplicity; so depending on how accurate you want to be — you add 4000 or 4004 to the present common year 2025 AD (Anno Domini) and you get 6025 by masonic engineering approximation, or 6029 by Irish math accuracy.
While we can humorously comment on the four-year rounding error, we should not do the same regarding the name — “Anno Lucis”. The "Year of Light" symbolizes for us the moment of divine creation; the moment of "Let there be light”. A moment that is heavily pondered and inherently present in all three degrees. It is the moment when light came into the world, it is what we seek mostly. It is the idea that knowledge equates light, which most likely led Freemasonry to adopt Anno Lucis as the moment of creation. Not incidentally, the Hebrew calendar considers the creation of the world to be in 3760 BC, referred to as “Anno Mundi” (“Year of the World”). This 240 years difference between Anno Lucis and Anno Mundi is due to differences with the Gregorian Calendar presently in use.
Of course, we cannot think of this coming month without thinking of what is for some the best night of the year — Halloween. Rooted in Celtic tradition, this day marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter; it is the time when the divide between the worlds of the living and the dead becomes blurred, and the ghosts of the dead can return to earth. To the world, Halloween conjures images ranging from playful hilarity to mischief and superstition. But to us speculative masons, this thinning of the veil between light and dark serves as a reminder that we have the responsibility to maintain the balance and make sure that light — knowledge and morality — shine forth.
In the words of Br. Albert Pike:
"We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.”
And what about the small cosmos of our Lodge? In addition to a flurry of social events, October is shaping to be our “Out with a Bang” month; this is our last degree-conferring month. We will bring into the light one candidate, and raise two brothers to the sublime degree of Master Mason. I trust that you are as proud as I am in this crafty work of our Lodge, and I hope to see many of you come to participate and support this work.
Because it takes a Lodge to advance the craft.
I wish all of you a Happy 6025! May the coming year truly be a Year of Light, we all need it!
In Friendship and Brotherly love,
Zevi Bareket
Worshipful Master
