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Tokens

robstown1062

Registered User
When you meet someone for the first time is it customary to provide a token for acknowledgement? If so which one and do you use the same for a brother?


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ssouthworth761

Registered User
If you know that brother to be a MM then it would be okay. But if you are unsure I would meet on the first degree

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dfreybur

Premium Member
When you meet someone for the first time is it customary to provide a token for acknowledgement?

I don't do that unless I think the man is a brother. It's trivial to tell in a couple of minutes of conversation without using anything private. If I do know him to be a brother I tend to part on the first not greet on anything.
 

SeattleMason0613

Registered User
I have only met a few outside of lodge and have never met on any degree. I would only consider it if I planned to talk masonicaly


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Brother_Steve

Premium Member
I don't do that unless I think the man is a brother. It's trivial to tell in a couple of minutes of conversation without using anything private. If I do know him to be a brother I tend to part on the first not greet on anything.
What leads you to the conclusion someone is a brother when talking to them? certain words or phrases? I'm not speaking of, "are you a traveling man?" kind of phrasing either. As to the topic, I shake hands normally with strangers I switch to a grip when receiving a token from a known brother. However I do not switch off to a grip from a stranger. I will simply ask them if they are a mason. I have yet to experience that though.
 
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dfreybur

Premium Member
What leads you to the conclusion someone is a brother when talking to them? certain words or phrases? I'm not speaking of, "are you a traveling man?" kind of phrasing either. As to the topic, I shake hands normally with strangers I switch to a grip when receiving a token from a known brother. However I do not switch off to a grip from a stranger. I will simply ask them if they are a mason. I have yet to experience that though.

Most of the time I figure someone is a brother because something comes up in conversation and the topic moves to lodge events. Or I see a ring or symbol on their car. Once in a great while someone uses vocabulary that appears almost nowhere but ritual and the topic turns to lodge events. Or as you mention someone notices my ring or license plate or I mention a lodge activity.

Someone giving my the grip out of the blue? It's happened a couple of times in two decades. A pleasant surprise but extremely rare in my experience.
 

Bro Darren

Premium Member
I was invited to supper last month after the Lodge had its meeting. During the evening events it came times to shake everyone's hands in a greeting. It was interesting to see each of the guys (brothers, but I'm not a brother yet) approach me, smile and give me a normal everyday handshake. I may not have been a brother, but it sure was nice to feel accepted and included in their greeting.

After the greetings I asked the WM who I was seated next to for the night "I understand that different degrees have different handshakes but how do you greet each brother in the lodge" - His reply was straight to the point - "We are ALL Brothers, from EA to MM and there is one thing that we all share in common, that is how we greet each other"

He didn't say anymore but i guess he didn't have too after reading the posts in this thread. Plus the fact that he could not share more than that with a non Mason.
 

BroBook

Premium Member
I don't do that unless I think the man is a brother. It's trivial to tell in a couple of minutes of conversation without using anything private. If I do know him to be a brother I tend to part on the first not greet on anything.

When that is the case you are the token "living sacrifice "


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