Practical Freemasonry: Accessible Philosophy for Working-Class Schlubs

by Matt Gallagher

The West Gate has become a Revolving Door. Bright, young men join to be part of this "something bigger" we have here, only to walk right back out again. Why? Too many pancake breakfasts? Too few? Dues too high? Too low? Everyone's got a theory. When a new brother leaves, he leaves for ONE reason. He didn't find a reason to care. PRACTICAL FREEMASONRY reframes our Working Tools in new ways to provide relevant direction for modern men. You think you know the meanings of the 24-inch Gauge, Common Gavel, Plumb, Square, Level, Trowel, and Compass, and you do, but Masonic teachings are often presented as either too basic to register or too esoteric to understand. You leave lodge thinking "Treat people fairly? Well that was a waste of an hour," or you leave thinking "Mercury? Sulfer? Ouroboros? What was that guy even talking about?"

Our working tools are so much deeper than the first and so much more direct than the second. They tell you to do things. Specific things. They teach you how a Freemason meets, acts, and parts in every walk of his life.

PRACTICAL FREEMASONRY teaches this to you in a fun, relaxed, and quick read without all the dusty alchemy and condescending, banal moralisms. Freemasonry is old, but it's not a museum piece meant only to me viewed from a respectful distance and never touched. Freemasonry is current, and alive and relevant to today's man on the go.

" I cannot think of a better token of our esteem thank to present this to every new Master Mason ....all brothers, from the youngest Entered Apprentice in the northeast corner to the grizzled Past Master in the southwest, will be so much the better using and applying the thoughts and actions of this book."
~ Nick Johnson, The Millennial Freemason, host emeritus of the Masonic Roundtable

212 pages, Paperback

Published September 30, 2021

About the author

Matt Gallagher is a US Army veteran and the author of four books, including the novels Youngblood and Daybreak. His work has appeared in Esquire, ESPN, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Wired, among other places. A graduate of Wake Forest and Columbia, he is the recipient of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Fellowship, a Sewanee Writers’ Conference Fellowship, and was selected as the 2022 Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum Writer-in-Residence. He lives with his family in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Reviews

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Masonic book club selected this book. I must say it was no nonsense and in general explained Masonry to a new member. The criticism was that in places it was too simple minded and at other times, you needed to have read Aristotle. While this is a good guide to the new iMason, it does not come close to replacing a good mentor (or book club).

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt has put together an insightful and intelligent discussion of Masonic ideas and teachings relevant to anyone. If you are not an esoteric or history obsessed mason, this is your book.

Full disclosure: I am a member of the author's lodge and read a pre-publication copy.

[Andrew Martins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for Masons looking for a more applied version of our lessons. Brother Matt removed the veil of mystery to provided real world examples that any Mason can benefit from.

[Hank Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I'm an atheist and not able to join the freemason, this is still an excellent self-help book. There are so many small paragraphs or one-liners that were profound to me