The Master's Message
September 2025
Greetings from the East,
While the temperature remains warm, our September Stated Meeting will be in casual dress. Weather permitting, we will return to business formal from October through the remainder of 2025. We enjoyed great food and fellowship in our International Potluck Social, and our officers worked hard in preparation for our upcoming Third Degrees. Be sure to join us for our September Stated Meeting, where our dear Bro. Homi will prepare authentic Indian cuisine!
All Master Masons are cordially invited to attend as Bros. Tomas Corza and Hormazd (Homi) Bhandari are Raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason. Mark your calendars for the Thursdays of September 11th and September 18th!
This month will also see the coming of the Fall Equinox on September 22, when day and night will be equal in length. Ancient cultures viewed in this season a liminal threshold between the spiritual and material realms. This mirrors the Masonic lodge’s own symbolism as a place between earthly labor and heavenly contemplation. The sun at Libra, the sign of the scales, reinforces the theme of cosmic justice and equilibrium, a reminder that every action is weighed, and every thought contributes to the building of the inner temple. These celestial alignments also echo the operative mason’s skill in geometry and measurement. As speculative Masons, the equinox may represent to us a moment of perfect balance, a reminder of the importance of exactitude in both the physical and moral architecture of our lives.
After the Fall Equinox, darkness gradually overtakes light in the northern hemisphere. In the Masonic journey, this symbolizes the inevitable cycles of growth and decline, initiation and repose. Just as the candidate enters the Chamber of Reflection, and emerges from the darkness of the preparation room that he may be brought into the light of the lodge, so too must the seasoned Mason prepare for times of retreat and contemplation. Philosophically, it is a call to the inner labor of the soul, where seeds of wisdom are planted in meditation before manifesting outwardly in the brighter seasons.
Leaves will fall, the harvest will be gathered, and nature will begin her slumber. For the Mason, this is echoed in the Third Degree's contemplations on mortality, and that which lies beyond: the physical frame will fade, yet the soul’s labor will achieve immortality. All temporal works must yield to time, but the well-built edifice of virtue endures forever.
As Masons, the Equinox is our time to take stock: What have we built since the Spring? What virtues have we cultivated? What vices have we pruned away? Let this season remind us, the brethren of Reseda Lodge, to celebrate our balance and harmony, and to rejoice and share in the rich moral and spiritual harvest of this year!
Cordially and Fraternally,
Daniel Rivera, PM
Master, Reseda No. 666
Sunset during Fall Equinox at the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles
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