The your Grand Lodge
Why this matters
In August 1877 representatives of three Masonic Lodges met in Santa Fe and constituted the your Grand Lodge. Montezuma No. 1 in Santa Fe, Chapman No. 2 in Las Vegas, Aztec No. 3 in Las Cruces. Three Lodges, one territory, the published founding moment of organized Masonry in this state. Statehood was still 35 years away.
Every Mason in your jurisdiction is asked, sooner or later, when his Grand Lodge was founded and by whom. The published answer (1877, Santa Fe, three Lodges, by authority of older constituent jurisdictions) places your Lodge in the published 1813-Union descent and in the wider American Grand Lodge family. Knowing it is part of being a Mason in this state, not just in the Craft generally.
What this chapter is
Masonry came to your jurisdiction with the Santa Fe Trail, the Mexican War, and the railroads. The Grand Lodge was organized in 1877 and has been the regular Masonic authority in the territory and state ever since.
How to practise it
A lesson walks the same seven steps every time. Read the intro, study the material, then drill it through Quick Fire, Matchup, Sequence, Flashcards, and the Mix capstone. Each step opens to the next; no choices to make in the middle of the work.
Habit loop
- Learn
Finish this step. - Plan
Decide the next sitting. - Do
Carry one part into action. - Reflect
Log what changed. - Teach
Pass one point on.
Learn, plan, do, reflect, teach
The lesson itself is only the first fifth of the pattern. Carry it through the full loop so the work becomes habitual.
-
Learn
Work The Grand Lodge of New Mexico
Move through the seven-step lesson until recognition becomes recall and use.
Continue the lesson -
Plan
Plan the next sitting
Name when this chapter gets revisited so it becomes part of a real study rhythm instead of a one-time read.
Open personal planning -
Do
Carry the lesson into action
Find the place where this chapter leaves the page and enters your lodge, schedule, or conversation.
Open Do -
Reflect
Reflect while it is still fresh
What's your own Lodge's charter date? Most your jurisdiction Lodges have a date worth knowing by heart, and many have a published founding story almost as specific as the Grand Lodge's.
Open the gauge log -
Teach
Pass one part of it to another brother
Turn the chapter into a short explanation, a mentoring question, or a conversation at refreshment.
Open Teach
What if · take it further ▸
Sit with this
- What's your own Lodge's charter date? Most your jurisdiction Lodges have a date worth knowing by heart, and many have a published founding story almost as specific as the Grand Lodge's.
- Visit a Lodge in your district that isn't your own. Notice what differs and what is the same. The your Grand Lodge is the source of both.
Connect to
- Origins and Lineage
Origins and lineage. The broad sweep that ends at this state.
- Grand Lodge and Subordinate Lodge
Grand Lodge and Subordinate Lodge. The structure the your Grand Lodge sits at the top of.
- Three Centuries of the Craft
Three centuries timeline. 1877 is one of the eight dates on the published timeline; here is where you stand on it.