Wednesday, November 20, 2024

‘Rocket debris damages GL of Israel building’

    
The view of the neighborhood from a window in the Grand Lodge building after a rocket strike Monday night in Bnei Brak, Israel.

The office building wherein the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Israel is located in a Tel Aviv suburb was damaged Monday, according to the Grand Lodge’s social media. No injuries inside were mentioned, but The Times of Israel and others have said five people outdoors were hurt, one seriously.

One of the shattered windows.

The Israeli government said the projectile had been launched from inside Lebanon. The damage to the Vita building, on Ben Gurion Street, was said to be shattered windows and breakage to ceilings, as depicted in these photographs shared by the Grand Lodge.

Firefighters respond to the Grand Lodge premises inside a commercial property.

“Barukh HaShem,” as the faithful say in prayer when things could be worse.

Cube-shaped shrapnel from the rocket.
These are familiar sights in Israel lately.

     

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

‘Founding Brothers: Associations, Societies, and Clubs’

    

Historic Peachfield, once the home turf of John Skene, the first Freemason in the New World, hosts inviting programs that educate in early American culture. One of these events in the New Year will feature a Brother Mason well known about the apartments of the Temple.

Bro. Erich Huhn is Secretary of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, and Junior Deacon of The American Lodge of Research in New York City. Also, he is a Ph.D. candidate, specializing in nineteenth century American Freemasonry, at Drew University.

From the publicity:


February First Sunday

Founding Brothers:
Associations, Societies,
and Clubs
Sunday, February 2
2-4 p.m.

Presented by Erich Morgan Huhn, a presentation on how colonial and early republic society was made up of myriad associations, societies, and clubs that sought to bring order and to form an important foundation from which modern society was built.

Peachfield is a restored country plantation house originally built in 1725, with an addition erected on the west side on the home completed in 1732. The name “Peachfield” comes from the property’s first settler, John Skene, the first Freemason resident on record in the colonies, who purchased the 300-acre property in the late seventeenth century. Upon Skene’s death in 1695, Henry Burr purchased the property. 

Later, Henry built the east portion of the home in 1725. His son John Burr built the west portion in 1732. The home remained in the Burr family for 200 years. In 1931, Norman and Miriam Harker purchased Peachfield. The house had virtually been destroyed by fire two years earlier. They engaged the services of R. Brognard Okie, a well-known Philadelphia architect, to restore the home in the colonial revival style which became popular in the early 20th century.

Three years prior to her death in 1965, Mrs. Harker bequeathed Peachfield and its surrounding 120 acres of land to The National Society of The Colonial Dames in The State of New Jersey. Now used as the Society’s state headquarters, the Dames of New Jersey have honored Mrs. Harker’s wish to keep the property as it “ has always been,” and have maintained Peachfield as a house museum.

Surrounding farm lands adjacent to the house are still farmed as they have been for more than 300 years.

Located at 180 Burrs Road, Westampton, New Jersey.

The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in The State of New Jersey, founded in 1892, maintains two museum properties: Peachfield in Westampton, New Jersey and the Old Schoolhouse in Mount Holly, New Jersey. We invite you to visit and learn about New Jersey’s Quaker roots and heritage at both of these historic sites. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


It’s not easy envisioning New Jersey as having Quaker roots, but I leave that to the historians.

Bro. Erich will appear at the lectern of The ALR the following month, on March 31, to give what I’ll surmise will be a related talk on Alexis de Tocqueville in a double bill with Bro. Chris Ruli, who will discuss Lafayette and Freemasonry, but more on that later.
     

Monday, November 18, 2024

‘Saturday: Hidden Influences’

   

They have kept it sub rosa, but the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia’s Conference on the Hidden Influences of Craft Masonry arrives Saturday. From the publicity:


On November 23, the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia will host a first-of-its-kind event for our Grand Lodge: the Conference on the Hidden Influences of Craft Masonry.

This will be an unparalleled event for our Grand Lodge. The Masonic Education and Service Committee has lined up more than a half dozen of the world’s foremost experts on Secret Societies:

John Michael Greer – Druids
Piers Vaughan – The French Qabbalists
Ben Williams – Elus Cohen
Darcy Kuntz – Order of the Golden Dawn
Alistair Lees – Illuminati
Jaime Paul Lamb – Rosicrucians

You must be a Master Mason to attend. Dress code is dark suit and tie.

A box lunch and a dinner buffet will be served.

In addition to this jam-packed day of Esoterika, we have after parties, cigars, and so much more! The Hidden Influences Conference will be held at the DC Scottish Rite and tickets are $50 each, but seats will be limited, so RSVP fast, brethren!
    

Piers has been active elsewhere in DC Masonry, as he has announced the birth of Adhuc Stat Rectified Rite Lodge 1782 as of Saturday. I’m curious to hear about its ritual. Congratulations, brethren, and best of luck!

Saturday, November 16, 2024

‘Keystone researchers to meet’

    
The Pennsylvania Lodge of Research will meet next on December 14 for two presentations and the election and installation of its officers. This time they’ll be at the Scottish Rite Valley of Harrisburg. That’s a Saturday morning at ten o’clock.

Too far away for me, and it coincides with New Jersey research lodge’s own installation of officers, but my congratulations to Bro. Chris Rodkey on completing his term as Master, and best wishes to Bro. Jack Speece, Senior Warden, who I assume will ascend to the Solomonic Chair. (I envy these guys. They have two meetings per year, six months apart!)

The presentations for the day will be Bro. George Haynes on “Craft Freemasonry in England and the Appendant Orders” and Bro. Robert Burtt on “The Masonic Jurisprudence of Roscoe Pound.”

Luncheon fee is $18, payable at the meeting.

After all these years, I still haven’t visited this lodge—and I even own a necktie that kind of matches their regalia. Maybe some day it will meet in the eastern part of the Keystone State, but I’m told it is likely the 2025 meetings will be out west.
     

Friday, November 15, 2024

‘Installation congratulations’

    
Felicitations are due to Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 upon its installation of officers yesterday. We knew in advance that Bro. Trevor McKeown was destined for the Solomonic Chair, but did you know Bro. Gerald Reilly was joining the officer team?

Gerald Reilly
Gerald, a legend from the dearly missed Masonic Light group and co-author of The Temple That Never Sleeps, is Inner Guard now. Well done, brethren, and congratulations!

Click here to see the meetings scheduled for the coming year.

Click here to read the list of all officers and members.

Click here to take your place in the Correspondence Circle, the lodge’s publishing business whence comes the annual AQC volume.
     

Thursday, November 14, 2024

‘Freemasonry and Colonial Power in British India’

    

Sometimes I think I’m psychic. On Sunday, I revved my favorite search engine to see if there had been an announcement of the next Sankey Lecture, which is silly because they do it in the spring. Unsurprisingly, I found nothing. Today, the organizers of the Dr. Charles A. Sankey Lecture Series in Masonic Studies announced the upcoming program. From the publicity:


2025 Sankey Lecture
Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m.
Sean O’Sullivan Theatre
Brock University, Ontario

Lecturer: Professor Dr. Simon Deschamps of the University of Toulouse, France.

This annual lecture series is named in honor of R.W. Bro. Charles A. Sankey (1905-2009) and is part of the partnership between the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario and Brock University. The partnership established between the Grand Lodge and Brock University, St. Catharines, has proven most productive and mutually beneficial to both educational institutions. Its beginning was with the initiative of Heritage Lodge 730 to support and maintain the Masonic collection in the James A. Gibson Library, and continuing with the posting on line of the Proceedings of Grand Lodge from 1855 to 2010.

Dr. Sankey served as Chancellor of Brock University from 1969 to 1974. A renowned Masonic scholar, he was active in all the concordant bodies of Masonry including the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, the Royal Order of Scotland, and Royal Arch Masons. His extensive collection of rare Masonic books and papers is in the Special Collections of the James Gibson Library at Brock, providing a rich resource for research scholars and students.


Professor Deschamps has been researching and writing about Freemasonry in British history, with a focus on India and the East, for more than a decade, and has presented at lecterns of Masonic conferences you may have attended.

I’m looking forward to this. My psychic abilities notwithstanding, I don’t know what he will say.
     

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

‘New edition of Secret Teachings due soon’

    

I’ve lost count of how many editions of The Secret Teachings of All Ages the Philosophical Research Society has published during the past twenty-four months, but a new printing of the famous 1977 Diamond Jubilee 50th anniversary book is forthcoming, and advance orders are being accepted. From the publicity:


The Secret Teachings of All Ages
Deluxe Edition Now Available
For Pre-Order!

Pre-order discount of $25 off! (Only during pre-order period.)


First published in 1928, Manly P. Hall’s mammoth encyclopedia of esoteric symbols and traditions, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, has influenced and inspired generations of readers, scholars, and seekers with its interpretations of the themes underlying the ancient mythology, philosophy, religion, rituals, and arcane mysteries of all ages. The breathtaking illustrations by artist John Augustus Knapp–gorgeous visions of Atlantean temples, Delphic oracles and Mithraic gods, swirling with color and arcane symbols–are among the most admired and widely imitated works in esoteric art in the 20th century.

For nearly a century, The Secret Teachings of All Ages has been treasured and studied as one of the most influential texts on esoteric and metaphysical traditions ever written. This deluxe new hardcover edition, based on the 1977 Diamond Jubilee 50th anniversary edition, features greatly improved reproductions of fifty-four full-color plates by illustrator John August Knapp, taken from the rare original copies of the artworks in the PRS Library collection, along with new cover art by Nikoo Bafti incorporating Knapp’s original artwork.

This item is expected to ship late January 2025.

“The book is like unto a door–a gate, in some old sanctuary, containing within it a wealth of imagery; a wealth of mysteries, designs and figures. When you have wandered therein you might say to yourself: ‘I wish I had a guide to tell me what these things mean.’ And you will find your guide to be your own rational soul.”

Manly P. Hall,
Lecture on Esotericism and Exotericism
1928

More information and ordering here.
     

Saturday, November 9, 2024

‘New research DDGM and lodge for Virginia’

    

And, speaking of research lodges (see post below), a transition of authority in the Grand Lodge of Virginia will be achieved in a few hours. Not only will there be a new Grand Master, but with a new administration there will be a new District Deputy Grand Master for the Research District also.

RW Shelby Chandler completed his tenure yesterday, and will be succeeded by RW Jason “Jake” Trenary. The Magpie Mason sends his best wishes to all, and aims to continue serving as this weird distant unofficial publicist.

Shelby circulated the following valedictory statement a few days ago:




Greetings my Brethren,

First off, I wish to say thank you to each and every one of you for making my time as District Deputy Grand Master a cherished memory; I truly enjoyed working with each and every one of you. Because of our work together, every Research Lodge is now getting more attention than ever before, not just in Virginia, but throughout Masonry world-wide like it never has before.

The idea of having a Research District is not just innovative, but is appropriate for us and other jurisdictions. Masons can identify Research Lodges as not just educational, but as resources that can be both geographical and themed-oriented to the needs of Freemasonry. And others are considering usage of such a district elsewhere.

I can say that, like my predecessors, I am very blessed to have had an opportunity to help mold this awareness of the potentials of having both Research Lodges and a Research District. Understand, that between Right Worshipful Brothers Marc Hone, Brian Croteau, myself, and now Jake Trenary, there has been a slow process, not just to standardize and make uniform the operating procedures of each Research Lodge, but to develop a culture and familial relationship among all Virginia Research Lodges. And we have made much progress and have been doing well in this endeavor, but remember my Brothers, it takes each and every one of you to make such a family.

Another point to make is that we, as Research Lodge members, focus on ourselves and our ability to produce research papers, but let us not forget that, as Masons, it is our duty to continue to help the outside world as well. So let us, as Research Lodges, work to support other charitable programs within Masonry as well, because everyone has a claim upon our kind offices.

Here in Virginia, these opportunities to shine our Masonic Light in a new ways would have not been possible without the brilliant vision of two men: Most Worshipful George Chapin, who first envisioned a Research District back in 1999; and Most Worshipful William Hershey, who was Chapin’s Administrative Aide in 1999 and re-introduced the idea of a Research District during his time as Grand Master in 2019. I bring this to your attention because last week, Lady Constance “Connie” Chapin was laid to rest, and today I received word that MW Hershey also laid down his working tools yesterday. So please keep MW George Chapin and Lady Michele Hershey, and their families, in your prayers and let us send to them and their families all the love we can offer to them. And as both these dear Brothers were patrons of our Research District, let us as a district remember, “whence we came.”

Finally my brethren, you will have a new District Deputy Grand Master in Jake Trenary, and a new sister Research Lodge in what is to be the Blue Ridge Lodge of Research No. 1738, out of Blacksburg, Virginia. Please welcome both into your Research Lodges and into your hearts and give them all the support and kindness that you have shown me. Let us wish them all the best and all happiness, and let us give our new Grand Master and his Grand Lodge officers, the very same love and support as well.

I wish each of you all the best and I pray for the success and happiness of every Research Lodge in Virginia. Thank you for all your good works and every cherished moment with each of you. You are each in my memories and in my heart.

May the Great Architect watch over each of you.  

Fraternally,
Shelby Chandler,
DDGM-Research


That a sixth research lodge is chartered in the Grand Lodge is amazing. Located in Blacksburg, Blue Ridge Lodge of Research will serve the western part of the Commonwealth.

Bro. Shelby, you have been a terrific ambassador for research lodges and research Masons. I look forward to seeing your coming adventures in the Craft.
     

Friday, November 8, 2024

‘Four Crowned Martyrs Day’

    

Today is the Feast Day of the Four Crowned Martyrs, namesakes of the famous Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 in London, the first lodge of Masonic research.

Like so much in embryonic Masonic letters, the legend of the Four Crowned Martyrs vexes the reader. In short, there are competing stories about them which not only render divergent narratives, but even tell of different martyrs! What all these saints do share in common is being murdered on the orders of Emperor Diocletian. Not how you want to go.

Today, I’ll share a short piece written by one of the lodge’s first members, Bro. Adolphus Frederick Alexander Woodford, a Past Master of Lodge of Antiquity 2 and a Past Grand Chaplain of the United Grand Lodge of England. (More of his amazing biography at bottom.) This explanation of things appears in Vol. 1 of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the research lodge’s book of transactions for the period of 1886 to 1888. (I’ll also add that the Arundel Manuscript mentioned below has no originative connection to the Codex Arundel, Leonardo da Vinci’s writings on geometry and other subjects. However, both batches of papers were collected by the Earl of Arundel during the early seventeenth century.)


The Quatuor Coronati.

The Legend of the Quatuor Coronati is very interesting to Freemasons because in the legend, as in the Arundel MS.—a transcript of the more important portions of which follows—the Quatuor were originally four Craftsmen by name Claudius, Castorius, Simphorianus, and Nicostratus, “mirificos in arte quadrataria,” which though it is translated the “art of carving,” is literally “the stone-squarer’s art,” or the art of stone-squaring. They are distinctly called “artifices” artificers, although as the legend shows us, to the four artificers are joined four milites; whilst one Simplicius, converted to Christianity by the four during the progress of events narrated by the legend, is added to the stone-squarers, making nine in all. They are declared to have been Christians, “occulte,” secretly. Diocletian ordered an image of Æsculapius to be made, and after a contest and dialogue with “quinque Philosophi” Simphorianus, who appears to be the leader and spokesman, adds Simplicius to the number —now five—and refuses, on their behalf and with their consent, to make the image. They are brought before Lampadius the Tribune, who after reference to Diocletian, orders them to be stripped and beaten with scorpions, “scorpionibus mactari,” and then, by Diocletian’s order, they were placed in “loculi plumbei,” leaden coffins, and cast into the Tiber.

A certain Nicodemus is said to have raised the coffins and taken them to his own house; levavit says the legend.

Two years afterwards, Diocletian ordered the soldiers to pay homage to a Statue of Æsculapius, but four “Cornicularii,” or wing-leaders of the city militia, refused. They were ordered to be put to death in front of the image of Æsculapius by strokes of the Plumbata, “ictu plumbatarum,” and their bodies cast into the streets to the dogs, where they lay five days.

Then Sebastianus, with Pope Melchiades, is said to have taken up the bodies and buried them in the cemetery on the road to Lavica. By the use of the word “Arenaria,” allusion is made to the sandpits in which slaves and criminals were buried, but Christians never. But in order to conceal the catacombs from their persecutors, opening and entrances were made and used in the Arenaria to deposit the bodies of martyrs and the like in the catacombs. Here they seemed to have remained till the ninth century.

For though Melchiades appointed the day, 8th November, in the fourth century, and it is recognized as such in the Sacramentary of Gregory 200 years later, and Pope Honorius in the seventh century built a church to their especial honor, it was not until the ninth century apparently that Pope Leo translated the relics of the nine worthies to the restored and embellished church on the Cœlian Hill, now called the Church of the “Santi Cuatro Incoronati,”—Incoronati in modern Italian being identical with Coronati in mediæval and classic Latin.

It will be seen that the names have become confused as time has run on, and various appellations have been given to the four and the five. Originally the legend gives Claudius, Castorius, Simphorianus, and Nicostratus, and to these Simplicius is added. The remaining four in one of the earliest legends are said to be Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorinus. This makes nine in all—nine worthies—concerning whom there is no reason to disbelieve, no a priori objection to, the perfect truth of the legend. Clear it is that in process of time the facts of the story itself have become a little confused and the names intermingled, but there is no doubt from very early days the four or five have been commemorated on the same one day. In one martyrology, November 8th is thus commemorated “Senas ornantes idus merito atque cruore, Claudi, Castori, Simplicii, Simphoriani, et Nichostrate pari fulgetis is luce coronæ.” One early writer terms them fratres, but whether he means fratres in blood, in confession, or fratres collegii does not clearly appear.

From Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. 1

As is well-known, the Sarum Missal of the 11th century gives the names as in the Arundel Hagiology, but the names vary much in different legends and service books. Some of these differences are no doubt scribal errors, and some attest remarkably the variability and the uncertainty of tradition. For instance we find Castulus, Semphorianus, Christorius, Significanus, Clemens, and Cortianus, all applied to some of the nine. In some MSS. the five are found, not the four; in some, the four are mentioned, not the five. Nothing can be decided from such mutability of the legend, or even safely argued.

In one of the Steinmetz Constitutions, they are simply described as Claudius, Christorius, and Significanus, while in the beautiful illumination from the Isabella Missal, four only appear—with the emblems of Craft Masonry one and all: the square, the plumb rule, the trowel, and the gavel—though five are mentioned in the commemoration prayer, Simphorianus, Claudius, Castorius, Simplicius, and Nichostratus. This is explained in the Arundel legend by the fact that Simplicius was not one of the original four, but being a fellow-workman and secretly desirous of becoming a Christian, he was baptized by Quirillus, the Bishop, and so suffered martyrdom with the other four.

It may be observed here, that the legend is in itself purely Italian in its inception, though it has spread probably with the Craft Lodges into Germany, Gaul, and Britain.

There are several old Acta and Gesta Quatuor Coronatorum and several special Legends, Martyrologies, and Hagiologies, of the Coronati, and the subject still requires study and illustration, as no doubt many valuable similar MSS. remain unknown and uncollated in the Vatican Library, and the greater libraries, and even private collections of MSS. To Mr. J.0. Halliwell Phillipps, the English Craft owes its introduction to this most ancient legend and valuable link between the Freemasonry of the past and the Freemasonry of the present, as contained in the “Masonic Poem.”

The Arundel Legend is taken from a fine MS. of the 12th century, in the British Museum. Its proper reference is Ar : MSS., 91, f 2186. There is another copy of the legend in the British Museum, Harleian MSS., No. 2802, f 99. There is also a short notice of the Quatuor Coronati in Regius MS., 8, c, 7 f 165, of the 14th century.

In the Harleian MS., 2082, Simphorianus is given as Simphronius; in the Regius MS., the names are as in the Arundel, but in different sequence.

In Alban Butler’s Lives, the Four Crowned Martyrs are named Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorinus; and he adds, “five other martyrs called Claudius, Nicostratus, Symphorianus, Castorius, and Simplicius, who had suffered in the same persecution are buried in the same cemetery.” — A. F. A. Woodford


The following biography of Woodford also comes from this first AQC volume.


Rev. Adolphus Frederick Alexander Woodford, born in 1821, gazetted Christmas Day, 1838, Ensign and Lieutenant Coldstream Guards, retired in 1841, matriculated at Durham University 1842, took B.A. degree and License of Theology in 1847, and M.A. degree some years after. Ordained Deacon in 1846, curate of Whitburn, near Sunderland, 1846-47, ordained priest July 1817, and in the same year presented to the Rectory of Swillington, Leeds, which he resigned in 1872. In 1852 he was Chaplain to Sir John Lowther, Bart., as High Sheriff of Yorkshire.

Initiated in the Lodge of Friendship, Gibraltar, No. 278, in 1842, and subsequently joined the following Lodges—Marquis of Granby, Durham, No. 124, in 1842, W.M. in 1844 and 1845; Philanthropic Lodge, Leeds, No. 304, in 1854, W.M. in 1858 and 1859; and Lodge of Antiquity, London, No. 2, in 1863, D.M. in 1878, under H.R.H. the Duke of Albany. He was exalted in Concord Chapter, Durham, No. 124, in 1848; joined the Philanthropic Chapter, Leeds, No. 304, in 1863, and its first Z.; and St. James’ Chapter, London, No. 2, in 1874, Z. thereof in 1882. Appointed Provincial Grand Chaplain of Durham in 1847, Provincial Grand Chaplain, West Yorkshire, 1860, and Provincial Grand Senior Warden, 1857, and finally Grand Chaplain of England in 1863.

Was first Chairman of the West Yorkshire Charity Committee from 1859-1870. He has been a constant contributor to the Masonic press, few names being better known than “Masonic Student,” one of his many noms de plume, and was the editor of the London “Freemason” and of the “Masonic Magazine,” from 1873 to 1886; and the author of Kenning’s Cyclopoedia, “Defense of Freemasonry,” “The Sloane Manuscript,” and other works—as well as of the learned introduction to Hughan’s Old Charges of the British Freemasons.


Bro. Woodford would die in 1887, so he didn’t see AQC Vol. 1 brought to fruition. He is one of the stars of this book, having written a variety of items in its pages, including an English translation of the legend from that Arundel Manuscript’s Latin. His name probably is familiar to you Rosicrucians, as he was among the organizers of the HOGD.

In closing, I just want to explain that a big part of my laughter at the silly notion of Templar origins of Freemasonry derives from my wish for more Masons today to learn about the Four Crowned Martyrs and thereby appreciate the connection that stonemasons Claudius, Castorius, Simphorianus, and Nicostratus have to us. I’m not at all against embracing Christian history and legend, I just think what we choose to believe ought to make some sense because Masonic Templarism is fallacious.
     

Monday, November 4, 2024

‘This Saturday in the Enchanted Realm’

    


This just in: Azim’s Fall Ceremonial is Saturday afternoon! The Prophets of the Black Fez will fez more Prophets in a ceremony so moving that—I don’t even think the English language has the vocabulary to convey how moving it is.

This will be from noon to four o’clock in the French Ionic Room in Masonic Hall.

It’s just one man’s opinion, but I believe a Master Mason, beyond the lodge, needs only Royal Arch and Grotto. And a research lodge. And maybe Cryptic. But that’s it!

Due to a bizarre scheduling conflict, I cannot be there, so the Chaplain’s duties will require someone else’s attention.

Lunch will be served. As always, it’s BYOB. Hmmm…what else, what else?

Oh yeah! If you haven’t petitioned for membership yet, there’s still time. Click here.
     

Sunday, November 3, 2024

‘New editor at The Plumbline’

    


“Behold, I will set The Plumbline in the midst of Masonic periodicals, and Chris Ruli shall be its editor.”

I imagine it went something like that, but all we have to go on is Chris’ modest announcement on social media:


On the thirty-third anniversary of The Plumbline’s release, I’m excited to announce that the Scottish Rite Research Society Board of Directors has elected me to serve as the publication’s editor.

The publication serves more than 3,500 members around the U.S. and abroad. Back in 1991, Rex Hutchens laid out the first issue (then just referred as the Society’s newsletter) and it became a source of news, commentary, perspective, and research. In taking on this position, I plan to shift it back to that original concept while also highlighting good papers whenever possible.

As a former contributor, I’m excited to see where this can go. It’s also nice to be associated with past editors like S. Brent Morris, Pete Normand, Robert Davis, Adam Kendall, and Aaron Shoemaker. Stay tuned.

Send your letters, requests, inquiries and anything else you want shared here.


The Plumbline of course is one of the benefits of membership in the Scottish Rite Research Society, with the annual Heredom collection of research papers and a bonus book.

Art de Hoyos
SRRS bonus book.
The bonus now in the mail to members is Étienne Morin: From the French Rite to the Scottish Rite by Arturo de Hoyos and Josef Wäges. The new Heredom is Vol. 31, edited by Adam Kendall with Associate Editor…Chris Ruli!

When he’s not authoring books, speaking before Masonic audiences, and editing others’ work, he’s out jogging. Congratulations, Chris!
     

Saturday, November 2, 2024

‘Masonic Hall Monitors at The ALR’

    
Thomas Smith Webb by Travis Simpkins.

What better way to commemorate the anniversary of Thomas Smith Webb’s birth in 1771 than to attend your research lodge for a dive into the history of Freemasonry’s ritual literature?

Actually, I guess initiating a candidate with Webb’s ritual might have been better. And passing him would have been good. And, sure, raising him could have been a great commemoration, but we don’t make Masons in The American Lodge of Research. We educate them.

The program Tuesday night in the French Doric Room at Masonic Hall was “Masonic Hall Monitors,” for which three experts united for discussion of the history and evolution of ritual ciphers, monitors, and exposures.


In truth, Webb’s birthday was the following day. Regardless, we think we arrived at the reason why exoteric ritual books are commonly called monitors: Because Webb titled his The Freemason’s Monitor; or, Illustrations of Masonry: In Two Parts, and the moniker “monitor” stuck.

etymology.com

The origin of the word “monitor” shows it derives from the Latin for “one who reminds, admonishes, or checks,” also “an overseer, instructor, guide, teacher,” according to etymology.com, so the term is apt, and seems to have become the aptonym many grand lodges use to title their books of exoteric Masonic rituals (charges, funerary ceremony, cornerstone dedication, etc.). Others call them manuals. How boring.

Anyway, we welcomed RW Sam Kinsey, Chairman of Grand Lodge’s Custodians of the Work; RW Michael LaRocco, Executive Director of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library upstairs on 14; and RW Ben Hoff, Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 and Past Grand Historian in Jersey. In concert, they gave a thorough review of these books, from Masonry Dissected, printed in London in 1730, and which gives the first known look at a Third Degree, to the forthcoming New York Monitor, due before the Grand Lodge Communication next May, and therefore just in time to provide our lodges the bona fide Installation of Officers ritual.

Wonderbook
1942 GLNY Monitor
In the Grand Lodge of New York, the Custodians of the Work is the team that maintains the integrity of the ritual our lodges use. I’d say the gist of Sam’s presentation is: Ritual changes over time. Sometimes, things need clarification or correction. Other times, the sensibilities of the present day might necessitate an addition or a deletion.

Sam Kinsey
Whatever the case, it is wrong to believe that Masonic rituals are the same from place to place, and that they have not been altered since 1717. Equally important is to view your ritual as more of a script to a performance than as holy writ that demands a rigid, unfeeling delivery. When appropriate, use inflection; watch your timing. Know the vocabulary. Remember you are educating someone.

Michael LaRocco
Bro. Michael followed Sam’s talk, wheeling a booktruck laden with antique and other vintage New York ritual texts into the room for a show-and-tell exhibit—including an original, from 1797, copy of Webb’s Monitor. This and the other books came from the Livingston Library’s archives and stacks; collectively, they illustrated Sam’s talk on how rituals change over time, requiring new printings to impart the ritual to new generations of Masons. The most recent publication of the Standard Work and Lectures came in 2019, shortly after a panicked grand secretary had discovered that the inventory of ritual books had dwindled to a single copy. The latest monitor, however, dates way back to 1989. That book is not current today, and the long anticipated update is coming, as noted above.

Bro. Ben was last to speak on account of his research paper “Monitors and Ritual Ciphers” spanning twenty-six pages. His specialty is forensic examination of Masonic rituals, and he owns an impressive collection of eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century ritual books—official and otherwise—on which he bases his theses.

He started us with a look into the Edinburgh Register House Manuscript from 1696, which shows us how short and simple Masonic ritual had been while also exemplifying how the structure has changed. What we today call a lecture is a long monolog delivered from memory by (hopefully) a gifted orator, but in a seventeenth and eighteenth century lodge, a lecture was a conversation. It was question-and-answer format, which actually lives on today. Think lodge Opening.

Between 1696 and today, embellishments were added to give literary depth to the symbolism. Most of these arose in the late 1700s from the books of three English authors. A Candid Disquisition, by Wellins Calcott (1769); The Spirit of Masonry, by William Hutchenson (1775); and, especially, William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry, various editions of which began appearing in 1772. These authors get the credit for much of what we say today in lodge.

It really is remarkable how much of their prose basically remains intact. I’ve written about these books before, and I urge you to seek them out for your edification.

What we today know of ritual from between the 1720s and 1770s comes from ritual exposures that were printed without authorization (ergo exposures), but were bought anyway by Masons in need of handy ritual references. Masonry Dissected is a great source for seeing how fundamental lodge rituals were in 1730. The candidate is prepared, admitted, introduced, obligated, charged, and fed.

It also was not unheard of for brethren to handwrite their rituals for personal use.

Regarding monitors, Ben explains:


Ben Hoff
The key thing to remember about all Masonic monitors is that they were not exhaustive ritual guides. The two key characteristics of a monitor that distinguish it from a ritual are the absence of any traditionally secret ritual material, and the inclusion of such other supplemental material as would be useful to running the lodge. This supplemental material included items such as procedures for installations, lodge consecrations, funeral services, cornerstone layings, recommended procedures for petitions, interrogatories, and similar matters. As for ritual material, only openly published illustrations included as expansions of the lectures, prayers, and similar non-controversial material are included.


Getting back to Webb, it was he who adapted Preston’s Illustrations for American use, making changes to ritual structure that comprise his Monitor. In his day, grand lodges in the United States didn’t have official standardized rituals, and they definitely were not publishing ritual books (remember what happened with William Morgan in 1826), so Webb made a career of traveling the states and imparting his version of the work to lodges.

Later still came the artistic renderings of our symbols by Jeremy Ladd Cross. His book, True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor, is whence the familiar sketches we know of Craft and Royal Arch symbols came.

In addition to all these, were other authors’ coded ritual books of varying complexity and weirdness.

It wouldn’t be until the twentieth century that grand lodges in America would publish their own authorized ritual texts. In New Jersey, Ben explained, this was because some other guy was profiting from selling such books, so the grand lodge decided in 1967 to make the money for itself.

The hour was late—some of the brethren had to excuse themselves to catch their trains—so I had to end the meeting. I think everyone present got their money’s worth, and I feel good about it all. (I’m a fairly anxious Worshipful Master.)

Macoy Masonic Supply Co.

I had planned on giving a fourth talk on the subject of Macoy Masonic Supply’s reprinting of Robert Macoy’s 1867 Masonic Manual, but it seems the 750-book run has sold out, and I didn’t want to promote something the brethren cannot buy. It’s pretty cool, though.

Under business, we elected to Corresponding Membership a dual New York and California Mason who also has been a professor and lecturer at several universities, including Columbia. He has submitted a paper already!

The American Lodge of Research will meet again in early 2025. We will hit the road on February 19 for a joint meeting with Dunwoodie 863 in New Rochelle. We’ll be back in the French Doric Room on March 31 for a French-themed program involving both Lafayette and Tocqueville. I’m working on arranging Zoom sessions too, but more on that later.
     

Friday, November 1, 2024

‘Time to join/renew QCCC’

    
If it’s November, it is time to join or renew with QCCC for 2025. Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle is the corporate side of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 in London. Membership in the lodge is limited to a small number of scholars who are elected, but guys like you and me may join QCCC, the principal benefit of which is possession of the treasury that is Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the lodge’s annual book of transactions.

QC2076 will meet one more time this year for its installation of officers on November 14 at Great Queen Street. Bro. Trevor McKeown, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, will become the 138th Master of the lodge.

For next year, the lodge has scheduled:


Thursday, February 20
Thoughts on the Early History of the Royal Arch
Christopher Powell  

Thursday, May 8
The Prestonian Lecture: The Second Grand Lodge, The London Irish & Antients Freemasonry
Dr. Ric Berman

Thursday, June 26
The Catholic Church and Freemasonry: From UK Foreign Office Files
Dr Jim Daniel
The meeting will be held in Bristol.

Thursday, September 11
Freemasonry and the Enlightenment: Insights from the Debate on the Eleusinian Mysteries
Dr. Ferdinand Saumaurez Smith
Open Meeting–Non-Masons are welcome to attend.

Thursday, November 13
Installation Meeting
Installation Paper


Someday I will visit, I keep telling myself. Click here to join QCCC or click here to renew your membership.
     

‘The return of The Magic Flute’

    
The Met

It’s almost time for The Magic Flute, Mozart’s Masonic opera, to return to The Met for its annual run. From the publicity:


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s
The Magic Flute
The Metropolitan Opera
December 12-January 4
Tickets (from $35!) here

The Met’s family-friendly production of Mozart’s dazzling fairy tale returns, sung in English and running under two hours. Nimrod David Pfeffer and J. David Jackson share conducting duties, leading a standout cast in Julie Taymor’s magical staging. Tenors David Portillo and Duke Kim share the role of Tamino, the brave prince on a quest to win the clever princess Pamina, sung by sopranos Hera Park and Emily Pogorelc. The cast also features tenors Will Liverman and Sean Michael Plumb alternating as the luckless bird catcher Papageno. Sopranos Kathryn Lewek and Aigul Khismatullina alternate as the Queen of the Night. Basses Solomon Howard and Pectin Chen take turns as Sarastro.

Prior to the December 14 performance, children and families are welcome to join our Holiday Open House. The Open House is free to all ticket holders for the December 14 performance.

The Met

World Premiere: Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, Vienna, 1791. A sublime fairy tale that moves freely between earthy comedy and noble mysticism, The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte in the original German) was written for a theater located just outside Vienna with the clear intention of appealing to audiences from all walks of life. The story is told in a singspiel (“song-play”) format characterized by separate musical numbers connected by dialogue and stage activity, an excellent structure for navigating the diverse moods, ranging from solemn to lighthearted, of the story and score.

The Met

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) was the son of a Salzburg court musician who exhibited him as a musical prodigy throughout Europe. His achievements in opera, in terms of beauty, vocal challenge, and dramatic insight, remain unsurpassed. He died three months after the premiere of Die Zauberflöte, his last produced work for the stage. The remarkable Emanuel Schikaneder (1751-1812) was an actor, singer, theater manager, and friend of Mozart who wrote the opera’s libretto, staged the work, and sang the role of Papageno in the initial run.

The libretto specifies Egypt as the location of the action. That country was traditionally regarded as the legendary birthplace of the Masonic fraternity, whose symbols and rituals populate this opera. Some productions include Egyptian motifs as an exotic nod to this idea, but most opt for a more generalized mythic ambience to convey the otherworldliness that the score and overall tone of the work call for.

The Met

Mozart and his librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, created The Magic Flute with an eye toward a popular audience, but the varied tone of the work requires singers who can specialize in several different musical genres. The baritone Papageno represents the comic and earthy, the tenor Tamino and the soprano Pamina display true love in its noblest forms, the bass Sarastro expresses the solemn and the transcendental, and the Queen of the Night provides explosive vocal fireworks.