Seán O’Néill, 32°

The "merry month of May" has two possible name origins: from the Greek goddess Maia, mother of Hermes, or from the Italian goddess of spring, Maia Maiesta, to whom sacrifices were made to insure the growth of crops. This month has traditionally been associated with dancing, singing, loving, and general rejoicing over the return of spring. During early Roman times, May was under the protection of the god Apollo, and Romans celebrated by gathering boughs and blossoms to adorn temples, statues, or sweethearts’ homes, continuing the spirit of Floralia, goddess of flowers, whose festival commenced at the end of April. The Druids instituted May bonfires to assure successful planting and plentiful harvests.

The password of Fellowcraft Masons means plenty and is represented by the fruits of a successful harvest. Not accidentally, this symbol for abundance involves nature as provider, since our physical selves could not long survive without food. But we cannot live by bread alone. Without spiritual as well as physical nourishment, the growth and flowering of human personality become stunted or wither. How is the spirit fed? Are the spirit and the body different? Are they opposites?

Thinking and speaking in opposites is a legacy of all languages derived from ancient Indo-European origins—up or down, long or short, physical or mental. Odd as it may seem, oriental languages do not presume opposites, but related and mutually beneficial polarities, such as "the long and the short mutually accompany each other." Our tendency to relegate our spiritual selves to a theoretical construct that is fed abstractly, perhaps only in church, denies the fact that we are not composed of pieces, but are, instead, a single related whole. The physical and the spiritual mutually accompany each other and are with us each moment of every day, intertwined and inextricable. As frequently as we eat our daily bread, we must attend to our spiritual feeding by reflection, self-examination, and worship of the Grand Architect of the Universe as we understand Him. This composite of spiritual and physical subsistence is well captured in the Jewish Sabbath prayer, said before eating: "Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe; it is You who causes bread to come forth from the earth."

Seán O’Néill is a psychotherapist in private practice in Annandale, Virginia. He is a member of the Education Committee of the Scottish Rite Valley of Alexandria, Virginia, the District Educational Officer for Virginia Masonic District 1-A, Lodge Education Officer of Ft. Hunt Daytime Lodge No. 353, and Senior Warden of Skidmore Daylight Lodge No. 237. He is also a member of Knights Templar, Shrine, and Allied Masonic Degrees, a patron of the Eastern Star, and a senior advisor to the International Order of DeMolay.