Posted on by Kyle Roques

My Installation Ceremony

This event is something that I’m still processing.

This officer Installation ceremony that I organized, coordinated, and took part in — marks a now 167-year tradition in the St. Louis and St. Charles region. That alone is enough to leave me speechless.


I am someone who came from a broken childhood. I grew up as an awkward, timid, meek, and confused child, with low self-esteem and low self-worth. I never thought that I deserved any positive acknowledgment for anything that I did. This shaped me into a loner and a thug. Someone with almost zero emotional regulation (who would act on my rage regularly). From my teens into early adulthood (under 21), I didn’t think that I deserved to be proud of myself or of anything that I ever did. I treated myself like I was evil and a monster that needed to be caged and beat into proper order (which I still believe there’s some truth to). Looking back, although I didn’t see it at the time, I had very little control over my life. I was on autopilot, hiding from the pain. Acting out of anger and rage from the hurt and scared little boy that was buried inside me.


Fast forward to now: I am a well-loved, respected, state recognized Freemason who has been in the fraternity for a short five years. Someone with a true brotherhood. Someone who has built a temple of love and light around me (obviously not something I could have done alone).


When I was young, I used to think that power was everything you see glorified in a gangster’s lifestyle, including using violence to intimidate and get your way, being manipulative and shady, using illegal ways to make money, drug and alcohol abuse, going out and looking for trouble, etc. I found out (the hard way) that none of that is power. That’s just an insecure, scared, and weak boy, eroding his soul because he’d rather fight the world than deal with his demons. True power is someone who can regulate their emotions and be in control. Someone educated who can articulate their thoughts, wants, needs, feelings, and ideas. Someone who moves forward in life with love and understanding. Someone whose mere presence has the ability to calm, soothe, and uplift other souls.


So, to go from being a troubled child, to a petty thug, to being a man who has the ability to move (touch the hearts of) a room of over 70 people (many to tears) with my words and actions (just by being myself) is something of such profound significance that I truly just cannot understand. It’s still not registering to me that I have this power, that this is my life, that I am this man. My trauma kicks in and tells me that I do not deserve this at all. I know that’s not wholly true, but there is some truth to it. So, every day I strive to be the man that Freemasonry sees and rewards.
Despite the essay above, I am at a loss for words. Without a doubt, I will be processing this day for the rest of my life.


If you look at these pictures, you’ll see a man who reflects and radiates what has been given to him, a man with his heart full, who has only just begun to step into his power.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

🚫 No Contact 🚫

Most people do not understand going “no contact” with an abusive family member. Everybody seems to believe that just because the person abusing you is family, you have to keep that person in your life. That thinking only perpetuates the cycle of abuse and makes everything worse for all parties involved.

Which I fully understand this mindset. That’s how we’re conditioned and raised, and the pressure from other family members is immense. They won’t understand either, and it will likely create tension between you and the rest of the family. This pressure is even greater when the abuser is a parent. Everyone thinks you owe something to your parents because they brought you into the world and potentially raised you, but you don’t. Parents have a much higher obligation to their children than the other way around. In fact, I’d argue parents bear all the obligation. The only thing a child owes a parent is respect, if it’s given. Just because you are the child of an adult, that doesn’t mean you are obligated to put up with any form of abuse from that adult.

When you go no contact, people typically see you as the one that’s overreacting, and that you’re the sensitive, irrational, and abusive one. I’m here to shed light on why someone might go no contact with a family member and explain how keeping the perpetrator in their life only hurts that individual.

I think this is common among familial victim-perpetrator bonds, but one of the central reasons I went no contact was because of emotional dysregulation. Just having my mother “in my life”—which means not even having to be around her physically, just her having access to me (phone call, text, family, etc.)—would prevent me from being able to regulate my emotions in a healthy way. When people hear about “regulating emotions,” they typically only think about having issues regulating emotions in the extremes—like being really mad or sad.

But what most people don’t realize is that we are purely emotional beings. Every decision you make during the day is based on emotions. You can’t turn off emotions; you can’t not feel emotion. Even when people detach or suppress an emotion and claim they are numb to it, that’s still an emotional response.

So, for me, not being able to regulate emotions with my mother in my life meant that every moment of every day, whether I realized it or not, I was behaving in ways beyond my control. This is partly how people with personality disorders control their victims. When you’re emotionally vulnerable like that, the abuser can get you to behave and react in the way they want you to, in order to get what they want out of you. That’s basically what living in this dysregulated state is—you’re just being highly reactive, responding to everything, always feeling like you can never catch your breath. Not feeling in control of yourself or your life at all… because you’re not. And that was the absolute worst part of the abuse for me—not being/feeling in control. Because of my trauma, I rely on my sense of control to feel safe and secure. And I’m not talking about physical safety, but a deep psychological safety—the kind that’s especially vital for someone with childhood trauma.

When a person loses this sense of safety, it can lead to hypervigilance, anxiety, difficulty trusting others, or even dissociation. Their nervous system stays in a perpetual state of fight, flight, or freeze, making it hard to relax, form healthy attachments, or feel at ease in everyday situations. All of which I experienced. I lived like this for decades with my mother in my life—in this constant state of fight or flight, reacting to every little thing, unable to trust, unable to connect, unable to grow. I felt all of this and was conscious of it.

That’s what led me to seek therapy originally. I knew what I was feeling and how I behaved wasn’t right. I just didn’t realize how bad and extreme it really was until recently—not until after going no contact for ~3 years. In that survival state, there is no healing, there is no growth—there’s just stagnation and being stuck in adolescence.

And again, all of this I would feel without having to physically be around my mother. Just her having access to me is enough to induce these feelings and this state. That’s what people really don’t understand. It hurts me on a very deep level (my soul) to have her in my life. I will have no peace, contentment, or delight. No healing or growth. No connecting with others, only pushing people away. That’s what I did to all the innocent people in my life—pushed them away with my behavior because I was hurt and didn’t know any other way. I was a terrible person, a monster even. I tried to make people either see this deep pain I felt or tried to make them feel the pain I felt. I did this by lashing out, by being violent and reactive, and/or by actively trying to hurt people like I hurt.

Then there’s the concept of mirroring. The more I was around my mother, the more I became her. And this was by design. She engineers situations to provoke reactions that mirror her own behavior. Again, the more I was around her, the more I would become her. People don’t realize that in order to be in someone’s life who has a serious personality disorder, you have to live in their world on some level and adopt their behavior. You have to feed into their delusions, play their games, and sign off on their actions for you to be in their life.

As Elie Wiesel said, thinking you’re staying neutral, not choosing the victim’s side, is to promote the abuse, support the oppressor, and encourage the torment. Simply put, you have to accept and adopt the perpetrator’s behavior and support them on some level to be in their life—period. And to minimize your role in the abuser’s life—along with their behavior—makes you complicit and either naive, a coward, or both.

These are just a couple reasons why an individual may need to go no contact. The list goes on. Even without all of this, the bottom line is that if someone is abusing you, they won’t take any responsibility, and they aren’t changing their behavior, you do not need them in your life and have every reason to go no contact.

My mother has only ever taken from me. Going no contact has been the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. My rage is disappearing. I am getting to a point where I no longer have to actively “regulate” my emotions. The rage just doesn’t come for me to even have to regulate it anymore. I have peace in my soul and a stoic way of Being that I could have never imagined or thought possible. I can actually heal because I’m no longer in survival mode. I raged because I wanted people to see or feel how deeply I was hurting from the abuse. Now that the abuse is gone, so is that urge. What remains are automatic behaviors I need to unlearn and to learn new ways of Being.

So, consider this a PSA. If you are stuck in an abusive family dynamic—if you have an unshakable feeling of being “off” or “not right”—if you feel stunted and stuck, if you feel hurt and want others to hurt the same, if you have difficulty regulating your emotions and are constantly pushing the innocent people you love away in your life—there’s a way out. You can go no contact. You will never be able to heal when you’re allowing someone you love to abuse you. You may not realize it now, but it really is soul-crushing. You don’t owe your abuser anything; you don’t have to stick around. But you do owe a lot to yourself and to the innocent people you love.

And if you hear that someone has cut off a family member (or their entire family), don’t be so quick to judge. Know that the decision wasn’t made on a whim. It took me a year of weekly therapy sessions to realize no contact was even an option. After a lifetime of knowing what my mother was doing to me was wrong. Then it took a situation that showed me—without a doubt—that my abuser only wants to destroy me and everything I love instead of being the loving mother she claims to be.

People in this situation already feel alone and misunderstood. Don’t add to their pain with more judgment. You may never fully understand their decision—and that’s okay. Just like I can’t understand what it’s like to have a loving mother.

Judge people by their soul, who they are now, and how you know them to be—not by what they had to do to get to here.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

That Isn’t Me…

That isn’t me. I’m not that guy. I don’t do that… These are things I’ve been telling myself for the last few years.

Since joining the fraternity, I have grown in many ways and by large measure. I didn’t necessarily go into the fraternity with the mindset that I wanted to change my personality. It seems to have just happened on its own, with little concious direction from myself.

I’ve always admired the kind of person that has the ability – and gumption – to make people (strangers, family, and friends) comfortable and at ease. Someone who presents as an intellectual. Someone that dispels tensions and doesn’t have a threatening aura. The kind of person that can bring people together by their energy and actions. The kind of person that brings joy and kindness to a room and uplifts spirits. Someone who can get in front of a crowd and reveal who they are – their true nature – and sell themselves. Not in a pretentious or shallow way, but in a way that allows for connection and love.

I’ve never considered any of what I listed above as “me.”
I didn’t do that kind of stuff, I’m not that guy, that was never me. To strangers and acquaintances I would usually be awkward, silent, and cold to the point of being threatening. I could never be “myself.” Not that I wasn’t myself, it’s more like I just didn’t reveal certain parts of who I am with people. The non-threatening happy, caring, kind, and joyful aspects of me.

I’m not exactly sure why, but I imagine it was combination of things. I have always been tried to be taken advantage of, I’ve been bullied and picked on a bit, and grew up in an abusive household. I was condition to dim who I was to others to protect myself / for safety. Because of that, I feel I’ve always put on a front of sorts. This “I’m dangerous, don’t approach me” front to keep people at a distance. That mode is what feels right to me – a safe and comfortable mode of being. It feels like that’s who I am because I’ve been that way for so long and don’t really know any other way.

From what I have gleaned, I think people in the fraternity see me as someone kind, intelligent, caring, warm, and welcoming. Someone with a full heart that fills other people’s cup. A beacon that shines in all that I do.

The man Freemasonry knows now is not somebody that I have ever known. It’s strange getting to know yourself again in your adult life. In part, this is how I know I have been born again and the process of initiation worked for me.

I believe all this happened for me because Freemasonry is a place where I was fully accepted and encouraged from day one. It’s a place where men extend out the very best of themselves to others. Which invited the best parts of me to step forward. Freemasonry held a mirror up to me and reflected back those parts, showing me that I am good, that I am a man to admire. Someone to be respected, listened to, looked after, cared for, and valued. All things that were foreign to me before I joined the fraternity. It’s both sad and amazing just how much someone can flourish with a little encouragement.

I have gotten to a place where I can no longer live in denial – a place where I can’t say “that isn’t me” anymore. A place that is becoming safe and familiar to me. I’m not saying that I am all these nice things above and that I don’t have anymore growing to do – there’s still much room for improvement and growth. But I’m finally getting to know the man that Freemasonry knows so well.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

The New World Order!?

New world order!?!?

The society Freemasonry has created is very different from the rest of society. Freemasonry is a beautiful system of morals, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. 

In my experience – in regards to how we engage with and treat each other – what is “normal”/expected, and/or commonplace in Freemasonry, completely differs from the rest of society. Out in the world, even among the people closest to us, we typically do not get much feedback from the people around us. Most people aren’t very good at communicating “where they stand” with you on a regular basis. In Freemasonry, this feedback is constant. 

You always know where people stand with you – either directly or indirectly. Indirectly, by how they engage with you, and/or how they show up for you (both figuratively and literally). Directly, by giving you explicit feedback. Just coming right out and telling you. This constant feedback is completely different than anything I’ve ever engaged with in the world. With my childhood trauma, it is very healing for me in ways I can’t explain. 

Below, I’m going to list what is “normal” / common / expected /  encouraged in Freemasonry:

  • Recognition – explicitly recognizing people for what they have done, for showing up, for their work, their deeds, for how they treat people – recognizing people for who they are.
  • Validation – this partly ties in with recognition. Freemasons validate your emotional needs by recognizing who you are, the best parts of you, your true self. Freemasons listen intently, they hear you, see you, validating your thoughts and feelings (no matter whether you’re “right” or “wrong”).
  • Compliment – it’s common and encouraged (by example) to compliment others. For their looks, their dress, their work, their behavior, for who they are, etc. Freemasons also compliment you by working alongside you. 
  • Encouragement – tying in with recognition, validation, and compliments Freemasons encourage you to be your best self. They encourage you to show up, find your interests, cultivate your skills, and pursue your aspirations. 
  • Reward – freemasons reward you for everything I’ve been going over above. It is the most rewarding environment I’ve ever been in or witnessed. They reward you indirectly by continually giving you all this feedback – by recognition, validation, compliment, and encouragement. They also reward you directly with awards – shout outs, trophies, certificates, honors, preferment, etc. 
  • Protection/security – we guard the fraternity against people who would seek to disrupt the peace and harmony that prevails among us. We watch over each other both physically and emotionally. We secure our relationships. Bind them with the mortar of brotherly love, each and every one of us. We call ourselves brothers and are treated as such.
  • Help – we help each other when called upon, and we aren’t afraid to ask for help.
  • Acceptance – we accept people as they come. We don’t try to change them or get them to conform. We just aim to cultivate their inner light, no matter what that may look like. 

Freemasons are kind, loving, gentle, considerate, warm, inviting, thoughtful, giving, strong, honorable, and respectful. 

We try. We give a shit. We live with intent and purpose. We know how short and fragile life is. We conduct ourselves accordingly. We separate ourselves from what is toxic (to me, you, or society). We attract what is most important in life, bring it in, hold it close, fight for it. 

All this, mind you, in a male fraternity. Men from 18 to 90+ years old. Yes, even the grouchy “boomer” type men. Whether they are right wing, left wing, or anything in between. 

This is how real men treat each other. We are the example. “We make good men, better”… this is what better looks like.

We’ve been around longer than the United States. Our principles, ideals, and morality is the thread of life that has strung through and advanced society since the beginning of time. Our goal is to reduce unnecessary suffering in the world and advance society by empowering and providing the individual with the necessary tools and space to bring their light out into the world.

This is the new world order.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Magic Monopoly

Part of the reason why people have been abandoning religion, is that as the Church grew in power, they jealously guarded and monopolized the “magic” in the Mysteries, then punished with virulent persecution and death if practiced outside her strictist pale.

And now we are mislead by ministers in today’s worldliness, to think that politics and the press are legitimate spheres of religious expression.

The true mystics and sages have always known that there is only one legitimate sphere of religious expression. And that there is only one church with true power, and that is the church of the soul. Who’s magic is accessible by any human being, no matter the institution. So now the false light shines, and the miraculous element in Christ’s worship is adopted and dangerously exploited by unauthorized persons. With people seeing this danger, leading to more and more agnostism.

This is partly why Freemasons are taught to guard the West Gate and maintain secrecy.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Consistent Logic

I want to share a recent realization I had in therapy that I think will help people.

This is more for people that suffer from some sort of psychological trauma, that have problems regulating their behavior / actions. For people that are very reactive and allow their emotions to dictate their behavior and moods. I often wrestle with not knowing if the way I’m conducting myself or the way I’m approaching a situation is the “right” way – and/or wondering how much I’m allowing my emotions to get the better of me.

My therapist asked a simple question that helped me find a way that one can gauge that. An example is: if I wanted to bite someones head of in Freemasonry how would I approach that and conduct myself? The answer for me is that i wouldn’t and would approach it in a very controlled/calm yet assertive manner. Now, when asked the same question about a situation that is very emotionally triggering, like if I wanted to bite someone’s head off that is close to me, I used to do just that – just irrationally fly off the handle.

I was worried if I was handling a situation correctly that was very emotionally triggering. My therapist knows that I’m very much in my element in Freemasonry, that I’m kind of the best man I can be when functioning in my capacity as a Freemason. So, when I was concerned about how I was approaching my family, her asking that simple question of “how would you conduct yourself in Freemasonry?”, I realized my approach and behavior to conflict is consistent across multiple dimensions in my life. I am conducting myself the same in Freemasonry as I do at work, as I do at home, as I do with my family, etc.

Now, this still doesn’t mean I’m “right”, but it does show that I’m no longer being ruled by my emotions. It shows the level of control I have over myself, in even the most emotionally triggering situations. This realization is HUGE and empowering for me. It’s a big shift in my psyche that I haven’t noticed.

So, if you want to know if you’re approaching emotionally triggering situations from place more rooted in logic and reason, ask yourself: what would I do in a different environment (work, home, school, sports, etc.)?
If your rational approach is the same across multiple dimensions in your life you know you’re being consitent, which would indicate that you’re not being as reactive and ruled by your emotions. If you’re approaching sort of the “same” problem, in different areas of your life, in different ways, you’re likely being controlled by your emotions instead of logic and reason.

Logic and reason is not the default way our brains function. Our brains have adapted very powerful, automatic survival teqhniques to the contrary. You should try and make sure you’re keeping a consistent logic in all aspects of your life.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Universal Law

The law of polarity is a constant in the universe. Something the sages have been dispensing to us for 1000s of years. A scientific reality we have discovered fairly recent. Nothing can exist without its opposite. You can’t have light without dark, good without bad, pain without pleasure, force without resistance, etc.

What I (and many wise thinkers of the past) feel our ‘spiritual’ purpose is on this earth is to experience this polarity. Whether or not you believe this, it’s a reality that we live in and can’t avoid.
We’re sort of taught, and/or conditioned, that the dark stuff is not as worthy as the good. That the dark should be hidden or shamed away. But that is literally half of our spiritual purpose in this realm, to experience all of this – to experience the entire spectrum of human emotion.

Many have a problem with experiencing a richness in life – experiencing true love, true gratitude, true happiness. When we don’t allow ourselves to feel the depths without judgement, to go to the darkest places, to run from our hurt, pain and sadness, it prevents us from being able to fully feel the positive aspects of life.

In my life, I have only experienced the overwhelming positive by embracing, fully, the darkest most painful parts of me. So, if you’re having an issue of fullfillment, of not feeling the richness of the overwhelming positive in life, increase your capacity to feel by allowing yourself to fully feel the dark/heavier parts you’ve been avoiding/tucking away.

Grief is a good example that forces a lot of people to recognize this. Many feel gratitude, love, and a richness in life they’ve never felt before only after a loved one has passed – grief is intrusive like that. But you don’t have to wait for a loved one to pass for this to happen. In fact, you should do this now so that you (and everyone around you) can all benefit from this overwhelming/outpouring of positive you will experience by opening your capacity to fully feel the depths. Fulfilling your spiritual purpose in this regard is a positive feed back loop that creates more fullfillment, I promise.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Mystery School’s – What Are They?

“Mystery School’s, the ancient Mysteries, Mystery traditions” – what does “Mystery” mean, and why is it sometimes capitalized?

I had the question myself the first time I heard the term. I use the term often when speaking about Freemasonry and it’s a term you’ll see often when studying esoteric/occult teachings. It’s definition is quite vast and can’t really be articulated, but I’ll attempt to be as succinct as possible here, with a few quotes to aid in understanding.

Taken from Wiki:
“Mystery religions, mystery cults, sacred mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates (mystai). The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy associated with the particulars of the initiation and the ritual practice, which may not be revealed to outsiders.”

“A ‘mystery’, as it was originally defined in ancient Greece and used in the Orphic and Eleusinian mystery schools, is a type of divine revelation that can only be conveyed by experience and is incomprehensible to reason. The revelation initiates or begins a cognitive change in the recipient – also known as the initiate – that alters the way he or she sees and interacts with the world. It is not based on information or even feelings and therefore, it cannot be put into words.” – Kirk C. White

Simply put, what all Mystery schools have in common, is that they just offer a circumstance dedicated to giving the necessary space one needs to start to understand who they really are, for one to discover their real Self. So it’s the study of the Self, as an individual endeavor, and cannot be learnt/learned from anything/anyone outside of yourself.

Some of the documented, original, most ancient Mystery School’s that some may know are the Greco-Roman Mysteries (ie. Eleusinian, Samothracian, Mithriac, Dionysian, etc.)

Historically, “Their primary mission was to protect and preserve the ancient systems of enlightenment, healing, manifestation, transmutation and transformation so that they can be continually used by humanity for its collective progression. Mystery School teachings are imparted by an oral tradition. Rooted in shamanic and mystic ways of wisdom, these teachings are handed down unbroken from teacher to student in an unbroken lineage that has withstood the test of time. … To understand GOD, we must first understand ourselves who were made in their image. Mystery schools exist to empower us to ‘Know Thyself’.

As you can see, the term Mystery, when used to speak about the ancient tradition of the Mystery School’s, is not defined as most people use the word ‘mystery’ today.
Hopefully this helps one to understand what the ancient Mysteries are and what the Mystery School’s impart. But like I stated above, the “Mysteries” can only be known and felt by the individual. No one can explain to you what it is. You have to have direct contact with diety to truly understand.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Opulence

The Freemasonic ritual is intended to be a spiritually transformative experience. The initiatic aspect of Freemasonry is “intended to actually change the candidate; a rebirth with a new cognitive frame that allows him to see that he could not before – to behold the ‘mysteries’ of Freemasonry and not just the secrets.”

W.L. Wilmhurst writes:
“The purpose of initiation may be defined as follows: – it is to stimulate and awaken the candidate to direct cognition and irrefutable demonstration of facts and truths of his own being about which previously he has been either wholly ignorant or only notionally informed; It is to bring him into direct conscious contact with the Realities underlying the surface images of things, so that, instead of holding merely beliefs or opinions about himself, the universe and God, he is directly and convincingly confronted with truth itself; And finally it is to move him to become the Good and the Truth revealed to him by identifying himself with it.”

Part of how we make good men better is by this process of initiation. Which, when done right, fundamentally changes the way our brothers see, think, and act in the world. Mircea Eliade has this to say about the initiation process: “…the novice emerges from the ordeal endowed with a totally different being from that which he possessed before his initiation; he has become another.”

This is what happened to me when I was Initiated, Passed, and Raised through the fraternity. This is the main reason I stay active in the lodge, because this was so transformative and important to me. So now I am paying it forward to give new canindates the same experience. Because without me, new, and veteran Masons conferring these rituals, Freemasonry dies.

I get to take part in these initiations on a regular basis. I regularly have new canindates personally thank me and tell me that I helped in spiritually transforming them (since I typically perform very critical and involved roles) – as my brothers did for me when I was a new canindate. I’ve seen the transformations, sometimes even the very moment of epiphany.

This brings me a level of joy that I never knew existed. My life has never been more meaningful. I have never had so much direction, drive, and determination. I have never felt so powerful and strong. I have never been so happy. Words cannot convey my feelings. At the very least, all I can say is that all these feelings are felt with an intensity I never knew existed.

I now know the reason the Mystery School tradition has been passed down for 1000s of years. And I couldn’t be more honored to keep it alive and well.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Freemasonic Worship

It was a huge honor and quite the experience for me to work side by side with Missouri’s Most Worshipful Grand Master and other Grand Lodge officers, in this temple.

Since it’s relevant, and I’m sure many have the question, as did I, I’d like to clarify and explain the naming convention of “Worshipful Master” we use in Freemasonry.
Firstly, we do not worship any man. The term Worshipful comes from ancient England and was an honorary title that simply meant “respected” in the past. The structure of each individual lodge/temple consists of a Worshipful Master at the top and a few offers that support him. Basically, the WM (Worshipful Master) serves as the chief officer and oversees all lodge functions, lodge officer duties, and presides over each lodge meeting. He ultimately has the last say on matters but we are all considered equal.

Now, if you define worship as what most people see in the Abrahamic religions (ie. singing, prayer, sermon, praising God directly, etc.), I’d say Freemasons do not worship anyone or anything period. I know this was my definition of worship, basically just praising/kneeling to God directly in different ways.

My definition of worship has expanded though. If you define worship as: a wwide-rangedavenue to give adoration and respect to diety, a personal act of the heart rather than outward actions, and that worship can be expressed in all areas of life –
then you could argue we do worship.

But I would say what we worship more specifically isn’t diety per se, but the divine spark that resides in each of us. So worshipping the sanctity and power of the individual. Something I clearly support and stand behind.

So long story short: Missouri has many individual temples/lodges (city to city), in each, a Worshipful Master presides over it. Each state in the U.S. has a Grand Lodge, which is the overarching governing body over all the individual lodges in the state and functions just as the rest of the lodges do. So, the Grand Lodge’s Worshipful Master title is “Most Worshipful Grand Master.”