Now, this just peaks my curiosity. Just what didn't you agree with? Did you disagree that for many lodges the bulk of what constitutes being 'active' is to perform as an amateur theater group? Did you disagree that the 9 out of 10 new Masons who join, but become inactive, do so because the experience didn't live up to the hype they had in their own mind?
One of my brothers forwarded to me an article entitled 'The Importance of Secrecy' written by Brother Joshua G. Gunn of Austin Lodge #12. In this article he takes Brother Christopher Hodapp to task for diminishing the importance of secrecy in Freemasonry (for the record I happen to agree with Brother Chris.)
In the article Brother Gunn acknowledges that the common 'secrets' (i.e. handshakes, passwords, ritual) are readily available on the Internet and in book-stores. He does not, however, consider these the 'real' secrets of Masonry. He then goes on to allude that the 'real' secrets are something deeper and more esoteric.
Now, I have written on this topic before and to be frank the deeper and more esoteric aspects of Freemasonry either (a) don't exist (b) never did (c) go completely past me and (d) are different to each Mason as each one interprets symbols uniquely.
If you read my Freemason Fad post and disagreed with parts of it, I'm curious, which parts? If you feel there are deeper secrets in Freemasonry that extend beyond handshakes, passwords, and ritual, what are they? Where can I buy some? Who's holding onto them? Where can I learn more?
I've read Pike, and Manley, Wilmhurst, and others and it always amounts to just so much fanciful thinking to me. No two esoteric writers on the topic agree and when any of them attempt to tie Masonic ritual to historical precedent they do so with a degree of rationality once reserved for the followers of Edger Cacye; or as Brother Hodapp called it 'Masonic Mumbo Jumbo'.