July 2025 Trestleboard

The Trestleboard is an official publication of Twin Peaks Lodge No. 32, which is a legally constituted Masonic Lodge operating under charter granted by the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Utah. The Trestleboard is published for the sole and exclusive use of the members of Twin Peaks Lodge No. 32, and any other use is expressly forbidden.  The editor of The Trestleboard is Glen Van Steeter.  Submissions of educational articles or other announcements may be sent to the editor at [email protected], and if selected for publication, will be given full attribution. All submissions are subject to the approval of the Worshipful Master of Twin Peaks Lodge No. 32 and the editor of the Trestleboard.

The Lodge Secretary tries to keep our roster as current as possible. If you are moving, changing your mailing address, phone number or email address, please update your information in Grandview or notify the Secretary so that we can keep your information current.

Our Calendar on the Calendar page is kept mostly up-to-date and ccurrent, but we are adding information here for your benefit. Keep in mind that during July and August, there are NO stated meetings on the first Monday of the month. However, we are usually at either the South Valley Masonic Center (7390 Creek Road, Sandy, Utah) holding practices, or we are at the downtown Salt Lake Masonic Temple at 650 E South Temple performing a degree.

Event Details

UTAH FOOD BANK SERVICE PROJECT – JULY 12 from 8 am to 10 am.

Location: 3150 S 900 W, South Salt Lake City

As Utahns struggle to make end meet while facing ever increasing costs of living, the Utah Food Bank is an essential resource for our neighbors facing hunger. In 2024, the Utah Food Bank distributed 54.6 million meals. Twin Peaks Lodge is a proud supporter of this important community service. We will once again be performing 2 hours of community service to this worthy organization. We need 15 volunteers! You can let us know if you are willing to help by using our Contact Page “Email Us” form, or by directly reaching out to Robert Hartman (if you are a member you can get his contact information from Grandview.)

This is a working warehouse. Volunteers will be performing light to moderate work. You should be wearing comfortable work-appropriate clothing that includes closed-toe footwear.

Please come out and help us to perform a service for the greater Utah community. 1 in 6 school-age children do not know where there next meal is coming from. Your service can make the difference!

ALL-STAR BOWLING on July 28th starting at 7 pm

Tired of the heat? Looking for something fun to do on a Monday evening? Want to spend some time with the members of your Lodge where the one thing we WON’T be talking about if Freemasonry? Well, look no further! Your Lodge invites you to some out to 1776 W 7900 South to test your bowling skills against the other members of your Lodge (who ain’t all that good except that $!%***!!! ringer, Bro. Carlos). Friends, family, prospects are all invited to come for a couple of games.

We need reservations by June 21st so that we can let All-Star know how many lanes we need to reserve. You can do this by using the Contact Page “Email Us” form, or by directly reaching out to either Glen Van Steeter or Chris Van Steeter (if you are a member you can get their contact information from Grandview.)

All-Star has good food, the air conditioning works real well, and the company cannot be beat. We are still working out the cost with All-Star, but last year it was about $23.00 for 2 hours of bowling. Emails will be going out shortly.

We had great fun last year! We can’t see any reason why wouldn’t have fun again this year. Come on out!

ESOTERIC EDUCATION NIGHT on Thursday, June 17th @ 7 pm

Brethren, bookmark your calendar for Thursday, June 17th from 7 pm to about 9 pm for our next esoteric education night. As usual, we will be doing this with Zoom so that you can enjoy the education from the comfort of your own office, using your computer, tablet or phone. We do ask that you find a location where other family members can’t overhear as we will occassionally touch on the “secrets” of our order. An email will be sent to all the members who have given us an email address in the next few days with the appropriate login information.

All Masons are encouraged to improve in their knowledge of our Fraternity by conversing with well-informed brethren who will always be as ready to give as you are ready to receive. These meetings are conducted in a round-table discussion format which usually follows this process:

As we get closer to June 17th, this Trestleboard will be updated with more information regarding details of the topic to be explored.

RSVPs are not required, but are welcome. You can use the Contact Page “Email Us” form on this website, or you can contact Worshipful Brother Glen Van Steeter using his contact information in Grandview.

We All Knock on the Door for a Different Reason

By Todd E. Creason, Past Master of Ogden Lodge No. 754 of the Grand Lodge of Illinois – Published author and webmaster of the “Midnight Freemasons” blog.

We all knock on the door for a different reason. We’re all looking for something–that’s what brings us to the door of the lodge to begin with. Some of us find ourselves there because it’s a family tradition. Our fathers, and uncles, and grandfathers were all Masons. There’s a lot of different reasons. We’re looking for a connection in the community. We’re looking for new friends. We’re looking for opportunities to serve our community and we know the Masons play a big role in that.

But sometimes we miss the forest for the trees. We miss the main purpose of the fraternity, which is to give us the guidance and instruction on how to become better men. In fact, I’d say most members of our fraternity these days rarely explore and apply what masonry actually teaches us about character. About finding our purpose. We don’t use those resources we have in the fraternity to truly explore those questions we all have about why we’re here, and what we are meant to do with these few years we have on this earth.

I’d have to admit that’s why I joined twenty years ago. I was looking for meaning in my life. I was in my mid-thirties. I had a good job, a wife that loved me, good friends, and a nice home. But I wasn’t content. I didn’t feel like I’d discovered what life was all about. I hadn’t found that thing yet that tied it all together for me.

So I knocked on the door. And I wasn’t disappointed in what I discovered. I found hundreds of years of wisdom in how to rebuild myself from the inside out. And my life changed almost immediately. I read a few hundred books, and wrote a few books. I couldn’t guess how many articles I’ve written, and blog posts I’ve posted. I’ve shared a lot of what I’ve discovered over the years right on here–The Midnight Freemasons.

But my journey didn’t stop there. It lead me back to faith, and another transforming experience as God called me to a very different path in life than the one I’d been on. Not everyone’s path will lead them to the pulpit, but mine certainly did, and that path began at the lodge door. That’s when my course in life began to change.

Masonry is about more than friendships, and service, and activities, and meetings. It’s about growth. And we recite those words, and hear those concepts in our meeting and degrees, but so few of us realize that’s what it’s all about. It’s about building character. It’s about finding our way of making this world a better place. About figuring out what we were built to do, and to find ways to do it! It’s about letting ourselves be remade into something the creator can use for His purpose.

So my question for you is this. Are you changed? Are you a Mason that “gets it” and applies those principles we teach to your life, or are you pretty much the same now as you were when you joined. I encourage you to dig deeper. Apply those lessons and see what happens. You were put here for a purpose. Start working on that ashlar, and see where that path that started at the lodge door may lead you.

~TEC

Respectfully submitted by Robert M. Hartman, Past Master x 5 of Twin Peaks Lodge No. 32

About the Author: Todd E. Creason, 33° is the Founder of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is the award-winning author of several books and novels, including the Famous American Freemasons series.  He is a Past Master Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL) where he currently serves as Secretary. He is a Past Sovereign Master of the Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees. He is a Fellow at the Missouri Lodge of Research. (FMLR). He is a charter member of Admiration Chapter No. 282 and a Past EHP.  

Chalk, Charcoal, and Clay

Exceprted from Making Good Men Better

Masonic ritual makes use of chalk, charcoal, and clay to teach thee of our core values. Namely, freedom, fervency, and zeal.

Freemasonry values freedom greatly. It is for this reason that tyrants have always persecuted Freemasons and many great liberators of society have been members of our gentle craft. The name of our order begins with the word “free” because, as our traditions tell us, even in the ancient days of European serfdom, Masons were allowed to travel and work freely according to their own desires and discretion. Their skills were in such demand that no prince or ruler could contain them. For this reason, ancient Masons guarded their trade secrets diligently because it was that information about how to build great buildings from stone that ensured their continual freedom. 

Today Freemasons also guard freedom from anyone who would attempt to destroy it. Within our own Craft, each brother is free to interpret and apply the teachings of our ritual to his own life according to the dictates of his own conscience and understanding. This idea is represented by chalk because chalk is so freely formed that even at the slightest touch it gives way. 

Freemasons are fervent in our work to make ourselves better men. We begin this journey in youth and continue it through manhood and old age, never ending our journey of self-improvement until it pleases God to end our time on this earth. This fervency is represented  by charcoal because when charcoal is burned it creates a heat so fervent that even metal can be bent and formed. 

Freemasons have great zeal. Zeal is great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause. This energy is what motivates us to continue our life-long work and never become discouraged even when we are going through difficult times. Zeal makes our work practical and effective and is represented by clay because clay is a very p[ractical material that can be used for making many different things. 

Respectfully submitted by Robert M. Hartman, Past Master x 5 of Twin Peaks Lodge No. 32

About the Book: Making Good Men Better: A 52 Week Personal Growth Plan Based on the Teaching of Freemasonry may be found at your local better book stores or online at Amazon.com . ISBN: 978-0-578-63356-5

OPERATIVE MASONRY and SPECULATIVE MASONRY (FREE MASONS)

Submitted by Glen Van Steeter, Past Master of Twin Peaks Lodge 32 of the GL of Utah and Phoenicia Lodge 58 of the GL of Arizona

This is a derivative work of several sources, which will be noted at the bottom of this article.

OPERATIVE MASONS

The term “operative masons” refers to men who were responsible for the design and construction of edifices made of, for the most part, quarried stone. These men were collectively known as “stonemasons”. They were comprised of architects, builders, craftsmen, designers and engineers. Often, these separate roles were performed by a single individual. The record of stonemasons reaches back nearly as far as all of recorded history. Examples include, but are not exclusive to:

The design and construction of these magnificent structures required a high degree of mathematical and engineering knowledge, which resulted in men who had high skills and learning in mathematics (particularly geometry), construction techniques (cranes, winches, pulleys), quarrying techniques for initial and final shaping of stone, and timbering techniques for the selection, shaping, and transport of wood supports and internal structures (framing, cantilevered flooring, etc.) Not to mention subsidiary skills such as blacksmithing for the forging of fittings and fasteners. Therefore these men gained knowledge that was often only accessible in academia.

The high demand for this expertise during the Medieval Age gave rise to the formation of guilds, where this specialized knowledge was learned, perfected, and then taught to newer members. The guild system composed of two different major classes:

Some of the Fellows of the Craft arose to higher levels of prominence or importance within their guild. These men became architects to design the projects, overseers of Masters in order to direct the work at the jobsite, and in some cases, “journeymen” who would travel to seek work and expand the influence of their local guildhall.

The building of these momentous edifices was dangerous, and many were killed and injured. It is believed that concept of “Lodges”, building specifically intended for the purpose of housing, feeding, educating, and the nursing of the injured, arose in the 15th through 17th or 18th centuries. It is notable that the concept of caring for the sick and injured workmen, as well as their dependents (spouses, offspring), was a feature of Operative Lodges that is strongly reinforced and inculcated later in Speculative Masonry.

Obviously, the stonemason guilds (or operative Lodges) provided a high degree of education to its membership because skilled workmen were necessary for the task. Outside of the clergy and universities, both of which were frequently accessible only to the nobility, the education offerred by the operative masons was highly desirable for the lesser classes. As the need for able negotiators well-informed by contract law increased as the frequency of construction of strong fortifications, religious edifices, and houses of government, operative masons gained a mastery of general law. Finally, as the sanctity of any guildhall or Lodge’s future success was entirely dependent upon the strict confidentiality of their trade secrets, Lodge members were obligated by strong oaths to only discuss them with their own membership and never to divulge those secrets to those outside of the Lodge.

SPECULATIVE MASONS

By the beginning of the 19th century (or 1800’s), demand was waning for the construction of buildings that depended upon shaped stone for much of its structure, strength and durability, as newer, less expensive methods of construction were improved upon. Wooden buildings built of internal framed walls, floors and roofs, and clad with either a thin veneer of stone or stone-like materials, like the red bricks we see prevalent in the colonial age, became predominant. Later, with the industrial age, internal wood framing was replaced with steel or iron beam construction. Thus, the operative lodges began to decline. However, as noted earlier, these same lodges offerred the opportunity for an advanced education to those not of the nobility or clergy, and members of the merchant and gentry classes applied for membership, not to construct stone edifices, but to educate themselves. And they were willing to pay for that education.

These initiates were classed as “accepted” Masons, who were free of the bond that was applied to apprentices. Their education provided needed revenue to the operative guild halls, which allowed them to continue to exist as well as to maintain their prestige. The education of these “free and acccepted” masons focused more on social, political, historical, mathematical and legal knowledge, much in demand of the ascendant merchant class.

Speculative Freemasonry can be defined as the application of Operative Freemasonry’s principles for moral and intellectual development. Essentially, while Operative Masons use their rules, tools, and science to build literal, physical structures, Speculative Masons work see these craftsmen rules and tools as metaphors for building up their character as men.

Today, stonemasons’ tools, such as the square and compasses, the Masonic apron, the level, the plumb, the trowel, the gavel or chisel hammer, and the gauge (or ruler), have become symbols synonymous with the fraternity. Even the levels within the stonemason’s guild – Apprentice, Journeyman, Master Masons – reflect the Freemason’s journey of self-improvement. Today, the men of the craft complete a series of three degrees to confirm they are ready to move up the ranks of the lodge. The many concepts presented during their journey are a metaphor to the construction of a “temple or edifice”, pure and spotless, a residence which is wholly fit for him whose spirit, influenced by a virtuous education, becomes it.

A detailed discussion of what we know about the founding of the early Lodges of Free and Accepted Masons is the subject for another time. However, we know the following. In 1717, four Speculative Masonic Lodges in London, England, declared publicly that they would found the first Grand Lodge. That when they did so, they already possessed a sophisticated Constitution and bylaws to govern themselves by, a ritual with lofty ideals to raise the spirit and improve the mind, aided by many symbols of the stone mason’s trade (of which the tools used by the stone mason are now only a few), to imprint indelibly lessons of right and moral behavior designed to make the Freemason an example of charity, integrity, diligence and temperance of the passions.

Respectfully submitted by Glen Van Steeter, Past Master.

Sources or inspirations for the previous article:

Announcements

Newest Entered Apprentices

Brethren all,
Please join me in congratulating our two newest Entered Apprentices, who were initiated on June 30th at the Salt Lake Temple in the beautiful Egyptian room.

Both degrees were performed by the Brethren of Twin Peaks Lodge 32 with all the solemnity and dignity that was expected, and a fine job was done by the entire degree team. We also had four member of Progress Lodge 22 who joined us for this occassion.

Masonic Anniversaries

These brethren were raised to the degree of Master Mason in the months of July and August.

Birthdays

  • Brother Rick Hofmann was born on July 04, 1958.
  • Brother Christopher Rogers was born on July 12, 1980.
  • Brother Devin Foutz was born on July 12, 1974.
  • Brother Bretton Crockett was born on July 20, 1971.
  • Brother Fuifatu Fau’olo was born on July 23, 1981.
  • Brother Aflonso Dominguez was born on July 23, 1992.
  • Brother Coleby O’Brien was born on July 28, 1993.
  • Worshipful Brother Glen Van Steeter was born on August 02, 1961.
  • Brother Tiago Vidigal was born on August 04, 1986.
  • Brother Joseph Sanchez was born on August 08, 1983.
  • Brother Frank Keller was born on August 14, 1975.
  • Brother J Dowdle was born on August 20, 1956.
  • Brother Robert Denning was born on August 27, 1964.
  • Brother Richard Hunt was born on August 30, 1955.