“33 and Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry” – a perspective on the movie and the brotherhood

By: Joe Mauricio

 

By: Louella Cabalona, writing a guest column for Joe Mauricio, currently recuperating from influenza at the hospital. She thought the article would be appealing to all Masons out there, including her husband, Baron Cabalona and her Ninong, Joe Mauricio, the absentee columnist. Both Baron and Joe are members of the King Oscar’s Lodge of Chicago.

In 2010, Writer and Director Johnny Royal, embarked on a 7 year journey to tell the story of American Freemasonry. Inspired by his own progression through the degrees of becoming a Master Mason, he gathered over hundreds of hours of interviews with prominent Freemasons, and never before seen footage from the insider’s perspective.

On October 2017, “33 and Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry” premiered to a sold out audience in San Francisco which was followed by a national theatrical tour across the United States.

According to TriCoast Worldwide, the movie’s national distributor, “33 and Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry” is noted as the first film to fully examine the entire American Masonic structure, providing answers from prominent members of the Masonic brotherhood to long-time questions – the purpose and meaning of the rituals, why people join, the unique culture of the Masonic fraternity, and where the future of the ancient society is headed.

I was invited to watch the premiere screening of the movie in Chicago and as the wife of a mason myself, I was interested to find a deeper understanding of their objectives and learn more about the oldest, most widespread yet obscurely understood organizations in the world from the members themselves.

In a nutshell, the movie does a good job of giving in the common person a crash course on what steps you have to take to become a master mason and the different levels or titles you can achieve in the form of degrees which also reflect your ascension towards becoming the person the organization wishes every man to be.

I was hoping to be able to learn some historical accounts of how the organization started but as the movie explained Freemasonry’s roots are unknown. The organization’s rituals ties Freemasonry to the period of King Solomon and the building of the First Temple but it doesn’t explicitly say that’s where it started and who were a part of it. It also talked about the meanings of their most popular symbols like the square and compass standing for spirit and matter, credibility and integrity and the “G” representing God, as well as the word “geometry.”

From my point of view, it also served as a way of perhaps clearing some of the preconceived notions about this non-religious, apolitical brotherhood of men that has in many instances in the past been labelled negatively because of their secretive image.

But why does this centuries- old exclusive organization and its members seem to be more pro-active in breaking down these notions now?

I had a chance to interview the movie’s director, Johnny Royal who had just flown in from Portland on the same day to get his insight.

What prompted you to do the movie?

When I started going through the blue lodge degrees which is the first three, it made such a deep impact on my life that I wanted to figure out a way to share the emotional experience with not just masons but non masons – and women – that were not initiated into the fraternity. I felt that what I learned was that if people have some kind of semblance of understanding of what it represented, it would make them better people, strive to want to be better people which ultimately makes the world a better place.

What action or reaction do you hope to get from those very unfamiliar with the organization?

Well, ultimately, I hope that for men, they will seek out the fraternity. And for women, that they will ultimately go further into the study of nature and philosophy and seek out organizations that are inclined to them such as the Eastern Star or Co-masonry or female masonry. But ultimately seek out things that will again, bring light and bring knowledge into the world.

Is female masonry organizations connected to freemasonry?

It’s connected. It’s not recognized by certain lodges. They are considered clandestine because they practice a different form of rights and rituals that ancient free and accepted masonry practices. A lot of them are based on the French and Swedish rights which are different but it ultimately it kinda points to the same idea which is that – improving the self [quotes in latin]. Know thyself.

In our conversation, while Royal emphasizes that the documentary is the not sanctioned by the (freemasonry) authorities, he explains he got the governing bodies of the blue lodge of different grand lodges across the country to get behind it after sending them (copies for) an advance screening. “The loved it” according to Royal and “It’s been received very, very positively.”

When asked if there have been any requests for changes or omissions to the movie after it started screening, he says “There have been none at all which is amazing”.

What the movie tells me, which I feel Royal also emphasized, is that the Freemasonry is opening its doors to more people, brothers, more particularly than sisters. And, it is overall good news since masonry has been known to be very selective on many aspects. As matter of fact, when Freemasonry was established in the Philippines during the Spanish colonization, it only allowed Foreign-born members, not Filipinos, in the brotherhood.

Of course, things have changed and are continually changing. And this maybe the best time to seek out the brotherhood if you are interested in joining.

Finally, Royal end by warning those interested in finding out more about masonry about the difference between the film and videos you can find on YouTube “This is about the true light of masonry which love. I think some of the other ones are about conspiracy, about trying to find some time of belief in something that doesn’t exist, about some kind of malignant dark force that we are a part of and we are not. Because all that we’re a part of is – it’s Love. It’s brotherhood. It about making the world a better place by making ourselves better”

For more info about the movie, check out: TheRoyalArtMovie.com

Louella with Ozzie Trejo (left), the main organizer of the Chicago screening and Director Johnny Royal

Johnny Royal, a Freemason himself and the director of the movie 33 And Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry discussing the reasons for making film with Louella