SOCIAL SHOPS INTRO

Those that are considered the superior workshops, not because they are superior to the other workshops, but because they are found in the last third of the zodiac, and in that sense they are in the upper part of the year. We are referring specifically to the workshops at the University, the Parliament, the Guild and the Temple. These workshops essentially have to do with the gregarious nature of the human being and the ability to put ourselves in the third perceptual position. In other words, according to what NLP considers, the third and fourth perceptual positions, from which we think not about our position, or the position of our companion, but rather about the set of all other people in relation to that which are the values that must be cultivated.

In practical terms, if someone with their action endangers everyone else, even if for that person and the person close to them they are having a positive action, their action is still harmful because it calls into question the common good, these workshops define good and bad action based on collective responsibility, even if an act is positive, if this act is repudiated and violates the collective, it violates the responsibility and consequent freedom that results and goes against the teachings of these higher workshops. Conceiving responsibility from a collective notion is a challenge, especially for those who are focused on working on their own personality, or for those who are dedicated to cultivating their personal values and for those who dedicate themselves to building a relationship partnership at its most diverse levels. Here it is essentially important to delve into the reasons why we are and form a race that is the human race, expanding our mental powers and our abilities to live in society and therefore being able to become not only survivors, but above all , we form a single body from the collective.

This idea, which has a lot to do with the expansion of the mind present in Sagittarius, we also find it in the ability to manipulate the collective, in the sense of imposing barriers, which allow us to live among ourselves in Capricorn, to embrace the transformative individuality that we find essentially in an aquarium, and finally the capacity we have for dilution and total integration or acceptance, which we find in fish.

The ninth workshop, the first workshop of the higher workshops, works essentially at the level of what we can consider university knowledge, and in the expansion of the vibrational energy of each individual being to the collective, which this workshop works on. The Master of the ninth workshop essentially seeks to reach a very great balance between what is or belongs to each person and what is collective. This is how a teacher pedagogically teaches according to values that are dogmatic to him, which he tries to transcend at each moment by transforming them. you. All of his energy is changeable and therefore transformative, Jupiter is the ruler of this house, it is blessed by faith, as the core of this expansive and vibrationally transformative energy is based on the ability to believe in oneself and in others. In a different society, which is changing, and in which it is necessary to be direct and assertive, regarding what is not correct, through a responsibility that is essentially based on setting limits, which allow the legal and diplomatic freedom of individuals. It is a universal vision that is presented to us, in which knowledge of other cultures and different ways of thinking is highly encouraged, since it is from this that one can develop the diplomatic capacity, so essential, to achieve the balance of differences. There is also a concern to investigate in depth, at a higher level, in order to build paths that, through education, can transform the following generations, giving dignity to human beings.

The values of the university workshop are the capacity for vibrational expansion, dissociation from deepening, assertiveness in resolving practical issues, and finally diplomatic and legal responsibility. This first value is essentially based on the notion that we are much more than just the body, our resources, our argumentative capacity, or the feelings we carry in our chest, we are essentially the practice in relation to what is close to us and the society in question. general, based on what is our internal expression, in the world through our faith. Deepening dissociation is a value that implies that we are able to see our side and that of the other, and that we are able to dwell on this reflection. We surrender to destiny and have a deep respect for others and their differences. Assertiveness in resolving practical issues is the ability to resolve diplomatic and legal issues effectively. Finally, diplomatic or legal responsibility is based on the ability to have faith, despite the knowledge and realization that we are all different and that there are different paths to a solution.

The tenth workshop is perhaps the most unloved of all the workshops, it is ruled by Saturn, also known as Satan. Astrology and tarot challenge the traditional Manichaean conception of what is positive and negative, so there is no doubt that the energy that surrounds this workshop is restrictive and contains the impulses of the human being. In it lies the ability to be deeply political, to know how to play with situations and moments to get the best out of it, but this benefit must be for the benefit of the collective and not for excessive individual growth, addictions or any other form of control of the 3rd. The fundamental rule of this workshop is that true power is power over oneself, the ability to control impulses, our desires, our needs, what ultimately leads us to interest, in what is other people. It is necessary to control, we also need to realize that all of us as a collective have to function in an articulated and practical way. This workshop teaches techniques that, once applied, allow you to control societies in decline. It is austere and requires you to be stoic towards yourself, in order to be able to offer others a guiding hedonism that allows you to navigate difficult times. It is the workshop of politics, of functional control, which is often based on a functional dissociation of facts, to allow agreements to be established, even if momentary, to maintain social peace and the growth of society.

The values of the Parliament workshop are the capacity for functional dissociation, the control of vices and dependencies, that is, self-control, the management of contradictory interests and finally political and institutional responsibility. The principle of functional dissociation is based on the need to make a decision on a matter and present it in the opposite way, harming one of the parties by making it seem like the opposite. The principle of controlling addictions and dependencies, that is, self-control, is based on the control of our emotions, when faced with making a decision, which despite hurting our individuality, must be taken for the benefit of the collective, even if this involves the sacrifice of individuality. The principle of managing contradictory interests entails the ability to practice functional hypocrisy, whenever necessary to protect the collective good. Finally, institutional political responsibility is based on the sacrifice of individual will for the benefit of the collective, trying to preserve individual freedom whenever possible, but overriding collective solidarity.

​The eleventh workshop is that of unions and guilds, public and private associations, which fight and fight for interests that are based on human individuality, on the affirmation of this individual freedom, and which seek above all, to change the state of things that the marble from the tenth workshop wanted to implement and managed to do so through politics. There is another type of politics here, harmonious aggregation is sought through individual acceptance, and not through the creation of control rules or any type of functional dissociation so dear to the arts of politics. What is at stake here is our ability to transform ourselves as people and find paths, not only for our own individual evolution, but also for our evolution as a collective. This is also the workshop that tears apart everything that existed in the past and seeks new ways of being and relating, with ourselves, with others and with society. It is undoubtedly the workshop where we work on our own mental programming, in order to connect with the collective and it is also in this workshop that we realize the weight of the past, what BERT HELLINGER calls family constellations. In other words, the perception of the influence that the past has on our own actions, as a collective, as a family and as a guild or association. It seeks to break with standards that may be in some way inhibitory to individual freedom in the community. Its method starts from the individual and its internal transformation, so that there can then be a replacement of values at a social level, unlike the previous workshop, it does not seek institutionalization, but rather the network. Its objective is to connect the different institutions, creating a network of independent institutions, which collaborate with each other, in a model that is already cybernetic and transformative and not linear and Cartesian, as the institutional system of the tenth workshop, the Parliament, intends to be.

The values of the guild and union workshop are the capacity for individuality and affirmation, the transformative equity of the collective, the revelation of collective aggregation based on individuality, and social and harmonious responsibility. The principle of individual capacity and affirmation is based on the need to accommodate each individuality and respect for the inviolability of human life, which is above all things. The principle of transformative equity implies looking first at the other and only then considering the collective, assisting each person individually first, allowing all their creativity to expand, restoring social and harmonious freedom. The principle of revealing collective aggregation based on individuality is essentially based on the ability to realize that the acceptance of each individuality makes us stronger, as a nation, as a collective and can project us towards a much better future. Finally, harmonious and social responsibility implies the sacrifice of the collective for the individual, for the creation of a new society.

We finally arrive at the twelfth workshop, which is the workshop of the temple, church or religious congregation. What is at stake here is the perception of the collective, that we all belong to the same collective unconscious and subconscious, which does not depend on individuality, but on a connection as a single body that we form. Because each human being makes up what the universe is, realizing that when we are in unison and come together, that this energy forms the collective, it implies the dilution of individual interests, it implies the awareness that we belong to a single reality, a single race, collective and that we are in this context of a universal collective, integration into the architect of the universe itself. We are now a collective entity and not a personal ego, and when we are in this capacity, we are able to truly incorporate what the collective will is. All the work that exists here consists of putting an end to Neptune's own illusion and transforming it into something clear, dropping all the masks and truly transforming ourselves as a collective, into a cooperative society, which is based on values of solidarity, I would even say, of fraternity, in which we have to see ourselves, not as individuals, but as a society as a whole. It also implies realizing that there are basic values, of respect and human freedom and that these are based on understanding, that everything happens because it has to happen and not because there is an individual will, which is what forces it. If we prefer, the perception that individual truth is always embedded in what is collective, and the existence of an unconscious and subconscious reality, which guides us towards the future and makes us move towards our transformation, as humanity.

​The values of the temple workshop are the ability to accept the individual within the collective, the constant practice of gratitude as a transformative element, the dilution of individuality in the preservation of the collective, and spiritual and unconscious responsibility. The acceptance of the individual within the collective, the ability to look at others, the constant practice of gratitude and the transformation of our selfishness into altruism. The principle of diluting individuality consists of the integration of collective values, in our individual life and constant social practice, which should finally give way to a spiritual, unconscious responsibility in relation to the collective of humanity.

It is therefore easy to understand that we are here facing four workshops, absolutely essential, in what is our journey, as a society and as a collective. It is much more important what we do when we are in the fourth preceptive position, and when in this context, we communicate about reality, as we are perfectly aware of the existence of collective responsibilities, which oblige us to think first about society and only then about our own individuality and in the affective relationships we have with those close to us. There is a crescendo, which goes from our notion of individual and body, to the conception of universality, which is effectively what happens, throughout the twelve workshops, which follow one another, in time and space.

Astrology and tarot are therefore deeply Masonic disciplines, since through them we can work on our individuality, our conjugality and finally the collective, which we incorporate and which also has its own rules, which allow transformations and knowledge of realities, which can make a difference in the future of humanity. To reach these workshops it is necessary that the work of the previous eight be effectively assimilated, because it will be impossible to have a notion of collective, whether in an expansive sense, as in the university house, or in a sense of control and containment of different private interests, in what is the house of parliament, when they emanate from the need to affirm individuality in the collective, which we find in the house of the guild or the union and finally, equally impossible to have a notion of collective, when we are not able to perceive, that we do not exist as individual beings, but rather, immersed in a collective reality that involves us and that forms the unconscious and subconscious, which directs us, without this calling into question our individuality, but diluting our ego, in what is the affirmation of our essence, collectively and for others.

All these superior workshops imply hard and active work in the world, it is impossible to expand our vibrational and energetic capacity, if we are not able to understand that we have to accept others and deal with them, in a diplomatic and at the same time legal way, within what is a standardized and socially accepted framework. This often implies having to accept, that which shocks our individual personality, just as, at the level of politics, it is absolutely essential, that the functional dissociation, which is sometimes applied, is not done in favor of individual interests, against what is in the interest of the common good. Likewise, individuality, which must be affirmed, cannot create chaos and the destruction of the balance of values, which we owe to each other, completely destroying any margin of balance, which could be developed from the discovery of new collective paths to reach the new individual. Likewise, all these energies, which inhabit the workshops of the university, the parliament, the guild, have to be integrated into the notion of the unconscious collective, which we can say is universal love, and it is in this universal love that we find transformative peace, that takes away our weight and gives us back the lightness of life, present in the temple workshop.

We must be light, as in the twelfth house, or in the temple workshop, in the awareness that our time is finite and that all the hard work, which is practiced in the tenth workshop, in order to balance society with the individual impulses of the eleventh house , of the guild or union, end, in the certainty, that all these wars and struggles necessary for transformation, must lead us to the awareness that we belong to a collective family, in which we find ourselves linked, by solid golden rings, to which we must pay attention and realize our own insignificance, when disconnected from the collective. It is for the collective and in the collective, that individualities, marital relationships and everything that made us grow and make us transform, ultimately exist. It is there, towards the collective, that we must walk and it is there that we truly find the meaning of what it means to be a Freemason. Above all, the rules, which exist, exist to free us from prejudices, fanaticism, oppression, ignorance and the inability to deal with our own evolution, at the various levels, that these workshops force us to work on. Transformation depends on ourselves, whether at the individual level, the marital level or the collective level. Only by being aware of our responsibility can we truly transform what our society is and also achieve survival.

It is survival that we are talking about at this moment, never as in another century, we find ourselves faced with so many challenges, and it is absolutely necessary to have prepared and active masters in the four higher workshops, since they govern the collective. It is necessary to transform mentalities, but it is also necessary to maintain institutions, which allow social order, at the same time the study and expansion of our own perception of reality, to make us realize that we are part of a single identity, which integrates us to everyone, in which, in some way, we will end up diluting ourselves. As soon as we fulfill our individual task and are able to realize, that we are part of a collective whole, whose essential objective is the existence, of the great architect of the universe.

These responsibilities are also themselves, in challenge, with each other. To give a small example, I remember a frame from the film “Schindler's List”, in which, when the Krakow ghetto was being exterminated, a group of doctors administered poison to their patients, to prevent them from suffering from Nazi bullets. We could say that we are faced with a political responsibility, that is, to avoid the pain that would result from certain death, it is anticipated, in a gentle way, in a hedonistic, or self-indulgent way, to avoid the pain of bullets. Clearly, if we thought, from the point of view of diplomatic responsibility, believing in faith, that something superior could intervene, such poison would not have to be administered, and dialogue could even be resorted to to save the situation. If we think, from a point of view, of the harmonious responsibility, of the guild or union workshop, the administration of poison would be unacceptable in all respects, because it would be a crime, against the individuality, of those who were there, even if That, if it protected them from suffering, would be their decision and could not be made in their name. In this view, the pain of bullets, if it exists, should be accepted, as part of a choice, which does not depend on third parties, but on individual choices. Finally, if we start from a spiritual and unconscious responsibility, all these solutions are equally correct, as long as they were made with the heart and with a sense of doing good, if they were made with that intention, all of them must be accepted, regardless of what we may individually think, or not, about each of them.

It is therefore absolutely essential to understand that the existence of different responsibilities and freedoms obliges us to live, with each other, in society and to accept ourselves exactly as we are, and in this sense, the higher workshops teach us the practice of tolerance, of sacrifice for the collective, of the affirmation of the individual and of fraternal and universal love, for the great architect of the universe.