Fraternal Greetings!

Looking at the calendar, it has indeed been quite a while since my last post.  A couple of months ago my lodge requested my assistance with redesigning our trestleboard and website so I took some time off from blogging so I could direct my energies towards those projects.  Well we have finally gone live with our new website design and it can now be seen at http://www.unionlodge19.com.   I urge visitors to my blog to check out the website as all comments and suggestions are welcome.

I hope to continue blogging about my experiences once the new trestleboard is sent out.

S&F,
Scott G. Arnold 

Greetings Brethren,

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

Just wanted to drop a quick line and let you know why I have been a bit absent on here... My lodge has asked me to write a paper on the Entered Apprentice and Fellowcraft degrees to be presented to the Brethren; on top of that I have been trying to study my Fellowcraft proficiency so I've been a bit stretched for free time.  I hope to be posting again soon and I will certainly post my paper once it has been completed.

Take care.

Fraternal Greetings Brothers!

I started this website with the goal of making it more than just a blog.  Aye, the blog was (and still is) important to me but I also wanted a place to collect all the files, links and other miscellaneous tidbits I came across during my travels.  I envision this site differently now - I see it as resource for both those who are interested in becoming a Mason and for Master Masons alike.  To this end, though I already had loose implementations of the following, I have recently expanded the materials being offered.  The site now includes a photo gallery, link database to all sorts of Masonic sites and Masonic E-Library which boasts a fairly sizable number of down-loadable e-books and papers.  You will also notice a Frequently Asked Questions section in the navigation bar to the left - over time, I will endeavor to make this one of the most comprehensive and useful Freemason FAQs on the Internet.  If I may be so bold, I would like to highlight some of these features and encourage you to visit them as your time permits.

The Inner Sanctum
This is the portion of my site you are probably all familiar with - the blog.  In it, I will be keeping track of my progress through Masonry as well as posting various essays on esoteric masonry.  I encourage all readers to post comments on my posts as their fancy dictates - you can do so by clicking the "Post a Comment" link below the title for every journal entry; registration is not required.  You can also email or create a printer friendly version of the post by pressing the aptly named "Email" and "Print" links above, respectively.  All of my writings are licensed under a Creative Commons License.

The Other Side
The Other Side is also a blog but with the caveat that no Masonic subjects will be discussed there.  It's sole purpose is to provide a place to write about some of the other things I enjoy such as playing guitar, songwriting, baseball, shooting sports, motorcycles, comedy and anything else I feel the urge to write about.

Recommended Reading
On the recommended reading page you will find amazon links to some of my favorite books on Masonry.  I have personally read all of these cover to cover and have found them to be quite useful in my studies.  While the links do contain a referral code in them - my only hope is to cover the cost of hosting this site.  All proceeds after that will be put towards the charity functions endorsed by my Lodge.  This goes for the Google ads on the side bar as well.

Educational Materials
Even as a newcomer to the Craft, believe that it is not an undertaking which should be treated without due regard.  Since one cannot truly be a Mason without first learning what those words mean - both in the figurative and philosophical sense - I believe we would do ourselves a great disservice by remaining ignorant to the underlying teachings of Masonry.  In becoming scholars, we learn that all things are possible.  There are two separate portions to this area:

1. The Masonic E-Library
   This is the bread and butter of the Educational section of my site.  Here you will find all sorts of Masonic essays, papers and books which deal with the Craft.  Files have been categorized for easy browsing and an excerpt of each is displayed along with an icon identifying the file type.  All materials in this section are downloadable.
2. Links to Masonic Materials
   Here you can find links to  more Masonic essays, papers and books which are not freely distributed for download but which have been posted to the internet.

Frequently Asked Questions
In this area of the site I will be posting answers to frequently asked questions about Masonry, many of which I've had myself.  This is just the beginning though... I am in the process of preparing something that I hope will prove most beneficial to the Fraternity - it will take a lot of work to get off the ground, though.  More to come at a later date.

Picture Gallery
This area is admittedly lacking right now but there are still some useful S&C graphics up there.  I eventually hope to post pictures from lodge functions and any other Masonic events I participate in.

Guestbook
Guestbooks are so early 90's... but I like 'em anyway.  I find it pretty cool when people from all across the globe take the time out of their day to sign my guestbook.

Links
Here you can find links to just about every lodge in New Jersey, the New Jersey Grand Lodge, the NJ Masonic Home, various internet forums for e-masonry, etc.

Which brings us to the Contact Me form.  If you should have any comments, suggestions or recommendations on papers, essays and/or books please drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you.  Travel well Brethren!

-Scott

What started as little more than a journal for me to write about my experiences and progress in Masonry has taken on a life of it's own.  This blog originally started on a separate platform as part of a personal blog which contained all of my interests (music, baseball, Masonry, blacksmithing, motorcycles, etc).  On July 3rd, I decided to create a blog specifically for my Masonic travels both to A) give it the attention it deserves and B) to provide a resource for people interested in becoming a Mason.

In the roughly 4 months since resurrexion.com was born, traffic to this blog has exploded far beyond what I ever thought it would be.  As of the time of writing, 10,925 pages have been served to an average of 495 unique visitors a month in 44 different countries.  There are now 81 subscribers to the RSS feed alone.  While this surely pales in comparison to other Masonic heavy hitters like The Widow's Son's The Burning Taper and Brother Hodapp's Freemason for Dummies, I am humbled nevertheless.  Thank you all for your time, support, well-wishes and comments.  It is much appreciated Brothers and friends!

It has been a little while since my last post and I just wanted to let everyone know that's because the article I am working on is taking a little longer to write than normal.  I've been putting a lot of thought into it and I want to make it as lucid as I can before I publish it.  It's coming soon!

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots which enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles,  instant previews of  products available on Amazon, instant in-line videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

FYI - I am in the process of changing hosts for this blog - I have carried over all my old posts from the previous incarnation and tried to preserve the dates as best as I could.