The new year is around the corner, and with that comes renewal. Renewal of things both old and maybe not so old. Another beginning. As humans, we see the world and time in an odd way; we see things linearly. That is, we need a beginning, a middle, and an end. From death springs new life. Life is, after all, an amazing cycle. In Masonic philosophy, this cycle mirrors the doctrine of regeneration or “eternal becoming,” where the soul undergoes perpetual renewal through trials, self-conquest, and initiation—transforming the profane into the spiritual, much like the serpent shedding its skin or the sun’s daily rebirth symbolized by Harpocrates.

The house, built circa 1815, is said to be the first two-story brick inn and tavern in Madison. The original ground floor was divided into a tavern room, a bedroom (now a parlor), and a kitchen (now a dining room). Upstairs were a meeting room/sleeping loft. Thus, the original house had space for business, eating and sleeping. The original bricks were made by hand in the backyard. The interior bricks were sun-dried adobe, and the exterior bricks were kiln-dried.

On the 24th of February, the Lodge convened to confer the Entered Apprentice degree upon a worthy candidate who had waited patiently for several months. The turnout was exceptional, with nearly every seat in the Lodge room occupied by Brothers traveling from across the region to witness the occasion.

JS Bro. Brent Breese is a native of Hobart, IN and has been a Mason since 2017. He was initiated, passed, a raised to the degree of Master Mason in Montgomery Lodge #50 in Crawfordsville, IN while attending Wabash College. He graduated from there in 2019 with a degree in French.

Long before the stone of the Temple was laid at Jerusalem, and long before the first initiate walked between the pillars, there was another temple, an invisible one, built not of stone but of thought. This was the Memory Palace. Known in the classical world as the Method of Loci, it was practiced by orators in Greece and Rome, who required not parchment nor ink to recall their discourses, but the ordered chambers of their imagination.

Pillars to Dust
By: Bro. Justin Miller

I once stood before a mausoleum
A tomb of stone for a traveling man
Doric columns like the colosseum
Assembled with care by a Master's hand

I thought how great a man he must have been
To warrant such work as splendid as that
Lasting impression left upon his kin
For them to commission such grand format

The February edition as it appears in your email client.

On February 3, 2026, Porter Lodge proudly hosted our traditional annual Chili Cookoff, and once again it proved to be an evening full of flavor, laughter, and fraternal fellowship. Brothers, family members, and friends gathered to enjoy a wide variety of chilies, each crafted with pride and a competitive spark.

There is an old truth, seldom spoken aloud yet quietly understood by those who labor in the quarries of life. Masonry is not learned all at once, nor is it ever truly completed. It is not bestowed in a single evening, nor confined to the walls of this Lodge. Rather, it reveals itself slowly. Sometimes in moments of solemn reflection, and sometimes, quite unexpectedly, in the ordinary passages of daily life.