# So Mote it Be?



## Payne (Nov 28, 2009)

How familiar the phrase is.  No Lodge is ever opened or closed, in due form, without using it.  Yet how many of us know where it came from or what it means..? As a Pagan before I was a Mason I used the term to to end a ritual or prayer. So when I became a mason I begin to wonder about this "So mote it be"  Now I am still not sure who started the saying in place of Amen .  From what I understand, Mote is an Old English word with Indo-European roots meaning may, must, or might. In context of the early masonic expression "so mote it be", it implied both a wish for and a hope of realizing God's will. Today, modern Wicca Pagan religions has adopted the phrase and appears to have changed its meaning to an expression of personal will. So My questions is what do you feel So Mote it Be means?


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## lilhancock (Nov 28, 2009)

Payne said:


> So My questions is what do you feel So Mote it Be means?



I have often wondered this myself. However, it is slightly tweaked in the Eastern Star.

I found this "MasonicWorld" website slightly helpful http://www.masonicworld.com/EDUCATION/files/artoct02/so_mote_it_be.htm


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## ddreader (Nov 28, 2009)

i read in some book, some where. that it means amen. but if it has a deeper meaning. i would like to know what it is so i can pass it on to my students.


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## Hippie19950 (Nov 28, 2009)

During my instruction, I was told it meant "So may it be", which can be interpreted as Amen I guess. I have heard Brothers using it at funerals in a church, as well as at regular services at church.


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## Blake Bowden (Nov 29, 2009)

I've heard it means "Let it be so".


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## rhitland (Nov 29, 2009)

I have read and heard it means "So may it be" and refers to the saying "So it has been, so may it ever be." This explanation is from Kabbalah and refers to the unchanging laws connected to eternity of this thing we call life. So when I say a prayer about brotherly love being a divine precept, I am reminded at the closing this power has always been and will ever be.


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## JTM (Nov 29, 2009)

"mote" infers more emphasis than a simple "may."

not nearly as strong as yahweh's "I am," but in the same token, "mote" insinuates having been, will be, is.  Not just as simple as "it is now."


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## Nate C. (Nov 29, 2009)

I thought it was derived from Middle English and equated to 'so may it be'.


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## JTM (Nov 29, 2009)

sure, but like all translations, nothing is ever 1 for 1.  that and the connotations that we've attached to it's usage in modern english.

why not use "so may it be" if we could just as easily use "so may it be?"  rarely do i see in masonry that we do things in the ritual "solely because that's how it has been done." (insert grumbling PM jokes here).  everything has a meaning, and I have come to believe that it carries with it a heavier meaning than simply "may."  even the most seemingly innocent "just for tradition" cases in the ritual that i've seen always have a secondary meaning.

aka, "let the will of god be done, as it always is" or something along those lines is kind of what i'm getting at.  "so may it be, has been, and will be."  etc.


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## Nate Riley (Nov 30, 2009)

Like others have said, I think it literally means, "So may it be" or "Let it be so".  The same as "Amen".  But practically, it is a statement of agreement.  When we say "Amen" or "So mote it be" in response to another we are stating our agreement with what they have said.


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## ljlinson1206 (Dec 1, 2009)

I don't have a clue as to its meaning, but I can say that over the years I have asked countless Brothers and like the true meaning of Stone Hinge it is lost in history.


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