You know, in Philly there's a ton of Freemason lodges–one right up the street from me, actually. I used to feel really uncomfortable with the whole thing, especially as a woman of Lakota descent. “Masons eh? So you're the European dudes who paved these streets. That's your lineage, right? Good job.” Some of my grade school classmates took a trip to the main temple downtown. Certain rooms and parts of the tour were for the boys only, with the girls left waiting outside closed doors…on a field trip! I used to wonder what went on in their rituals, and how much of them serve to suppress the feminine aspect of the divine and the goddess energy, if not directly, then indirectly, by ignoring both those little girls locked outside, waiting in the hall, and the fertile soil that lies underneath those streets they paved back in the days of Willy Penn and (in my neighborhood) Henry Disston. Plus, it's no secret that cops, judges, and figures of power are part of the brotherhood (but probably on a smaller scale than YouTube would have you believe). Such a collection of power…and in an all-boys club. When I heard stories of some parts of the Philly temples being shrouded underground and urban legends about a system of tunnels through Philly, it gave me the creeps.

But, again, this is how I used to feel in my younger days.

I guess my mind started to change when my husband laughed at me: “Man, this is just a place where men go to get away from their wives. Stop trippin. It really ain't all that serious.”

…True.

Then I got out there in the world. And I had some really good experiences with Freemason folks. They were just good people. And on top of that, I learned that a Cherokee relative was a mason(!) He was a respected and wonderful man–he taught us a lot. With that in mind, I started looking more deeply into it. The Philly Freemason site provides a lot of GREAT information about their belief system. God the Grand Architect? I LOVE that analogy. And at the end of the day, it IS good for men to form a brotherhood–a fraternity. Us ladies? Well, we have our sisterhoods too. We might not have big, flashy, shiny temples or lock the boys outside when it's time for the proverbial field trip, but that's because we were historically too busy taking care of the damn kids to build those flashy types of structures. What we have built over the years is on the inside. And there might not be any grand lodge where we can celebrate, but shit…Who needs all that? Not I.

I just think that both brotherhoods and sisterhoods are important: look at the juggalos. It's unity and a code for some. You see that hatchet? You say, “Whaddup Ninja.” Random acts of kindness? All day.

And as I sat there with my Dad comparing the juggalos (the “Opaque Brotherhood”…and sisterhood too ;) to the Masons, he said something really funny: “Well, there's one difference between the two, in a general way: One fraternity locks people up and the other…well…face it, you GET locked up.” LOL…true! (Though for the record, I've never been in jail.)

I wonder what it would be like to be both a Mason and a juggalo. It might be a bit of a balancing act, no?