The Scottish Rite has given us all the tools and weapons we need to combat terrorism. It is up to us to wield them well.

I was sitting on the porch of a cabin in Colorado when the world ended. Most years, some of my Masonic friends and I slip away from urban Oklahoma and spend a week at my family's place in the Colorado Rockies, just to get a little perspective and prepare to fight the good fight again. This time I was doing just that but also preparing to present a program, dressed as Albert Pike, at the Scottish Rite Research Society meeting on October 2, 2001, at the Bicentennial Biennial Session of the Supreme Council in Charleston, South Carolina.

So there we were, sitting on the porch in rural Colorado, and the guys were throwing questions at me (between throwing peanuts to the jays, chipmunks, and squirrels), and I was trying to answer them as I thought Sovereign Grand Commander Pike would have, based on his writings. One Brother had just asked, "Why did you use so many weapons as symbols in the Scottish Rite Degrees?" At that moment, we heard the news on the television—terrorists had struck at America downing one plane in southwest Pennsylvania, destroying the World Trade Center in New York City, and severely damaging the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Thousands of innocent human lives had been snuffed out in a matter of moments.

The irony entered my mind like a dagger of iron. I had been about to respond to the question about daggers as symbols in the Scottish Rite by saying, in the character of Pike: "Because I know that life is a battle, that Scottish Rite Masons must battle for freedom, not just for themselves, but for everyone. And there are a variety of fronts to that battle: our spiritual vs. our animal natures; knowledge vs. ignorance; faith vs. superstition; freedom vs. tyranny. Plus, each battle is two-fold, first in ourselves and then in the world. In all these battles, we must be armed, citing our Scottish Rite ritual, with the 'Sword of Truth' and the 'Dagger of Justice.'"

Then, in the middle of framing this response, the world as I knew it ended, and a new world began.

I am not yet certain how to live in this new world. The terrorists have shown how easily a society that values freedom can be attacked—but I am not willing to surrender our freedom to purchase security.

They have shown that the great financial institutions of a democracy can be assaulted—but I am not willing to abandon my economic birthright of free enterprise and individual achievement nor sell my birthright for a "mess of pottage."

They have shown that fanaticism has an almost unlimited destructive power—but I believe in my heart that toleration is more powerful still.

They have shown that it is possible to do great evil in the name of God—but I refuse to believe God is ever pleased with suffering and destruction.

They have shown that will is strong—but I believe that spirit is stronger.

They have proved that corruption can breed in the darkness—but I believe that good flourishes in the light.

They have proven that hate can sink to unmatched depths—but I know that love can reach to undreamed of heights.

I must inhabit this new world, created on September 11 in such a blaze of incinerated fuel and steel and humanity, but I will not play by its rules.

As I sat on that porch in the Colorado Rockies watching dusk gather at the foot of the mountains while the peaks still shone in gold, I was thankful:

• Thankful for the Scottish Rite and its lessons,
• Thankful for the men who had preserved the Rite so that I might experience it,
• Thankful for the Brothers with whom I share it,
• Thankful that Albert Pike, who had seen so much bloodshed and sorrow and violence in his own time, could still write glowingly of peace, love, human dignity, and the triumph of good, honor, and integrity, no matter how they are opposed.

Now, I think I know for certain why swords and daggers and shields, symbols of war and conflict, appear in the ritual of our Rite, just as do trowels, plumbs, levels, and other instruments of building. What we build must be defended, but it must be defended with our own weapons and not those of the enemy. Pike realized the battle would take generations, not weeks, months, or years. He understood that humanity's greatest good stood surrounded by enemies bent on its destruction. He knew that only the sword of truth can oppose error and that only toleration can overcome fanaticism.

The Scottish Rite has given us all the tools and weapons for this new world. It is up to us to wield them well.

Jim Tresner is Director of the Masonic Leadership Institute and Editor of The Oklahoma Mason. A frequent contributor to the Scottish Rite Journal and its book review editor, Illustrious Brother Tresner is also a volunteer writer for The Oklahoma Scottish Rite Mason and a video script consultant for the National Masonic Renewal Committee. He is the Director of the Thirty-third Degree Conferral Team and Director of Work at the Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple in Guthrie, Oklahoma, as well as a Life Member of the Scottish Rite Research Society, author of Albert Pike, The Man Beyond the Monument and Vested in Glory, The Regalia of the Scottish Rite, and a member of the steering committee of the Masonic Information Center. Ill. Tresner was awarded the Grand Cross, the Scottish Rite's highest honor, during the Supreme Council's October 1997 Biennial Session.