The Magpie Mason is an obscure journalist in the Craft who writes, with occasional flashes of superficial cleverness, about Freemasonry’s current events and history; literature and art; philosophy and pipe smoking. He is the Worshipful Master of The American Lodge of Research in New York City; is a Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786; and also is at labor in Virginia’s Civil War Lodge of Research 1865. He is a past president of the Masonic Society as well.
A tiny preview of this year’s Heredom seen this week on social media.
Just because you’re not a Scottish Rite Mason doesn’t mean you cannot be part of the Scottish Rite Research Society. After an embarrassingly long absence from the SRRS, I rejoined yesterday, inspired by Chris Ruli’s visit to The ALR (see post below).
Looking forward to reading the scholarship this excellent group gathers and presents to us. Heredom Vol. 32 is due this fall. There’s also The Plumbline newsletter, in electronic form now from what I hear, plus the annual bonus book, which never disappointed me in the past.
Our presenters last night at The American Lodge of Research were Bro. Chris Ruli and Bro. Erich Huhn, who discussed Lafayette and Tocqueville, based on both Frenchmen’s tours of the United States in the 1820s and ’30s.
The American Lodge of Research contributed to New York Freemasonry’s celebration of the Marquis de Lafayette last night by hosting Bro. Chris Ruli, author of Brother Lafayette.
Ruli published the book last summer, in time for the bicentenary of Lafayette’s farewell tour of the United States, having been invited by President (and Freemason) James Monroe and hosted jointly by the Masonic fraternity. Hailed as The Hero of Two Worlds, the young French officer played significant roles in the American Revolution. At age 66, he sailed to the United States and undertook a tour of all 24 states (albeit with only one step into Mississippi!) and the District of Columbia between August 1824 and September 1825, and was feted by civil, military, and Masonic authorities everywhere as “The Nation’s Guest.”
Speaking to the lodge, Ruli retraced Lafayette’s travels and explained the tour’s significance to Freemasonry and how it should be understood in historical contexts, including the anti-Masonic movements of the nineteenth century. Lafayette visited a variety of locations here in New York State and was initiated into Royal Arch Masonry at Jerusalem Chapter and into Templary in Morton Commandery in New York City.
Before Chris took to the lectern, Bro. Erich Huhn, the Junior Deacon of the lodge, discussed another Frenchman’s historic ties to the United States: Alexis de Tocqueville. His tour of the country spanned through 1831 and 1832 and resulted in the landmark book Democracy in America.
Tocqueville, a historian and political philosopher, came to study the nature and habits of Americans, noting, among other things, how the citizens of the growing republic were self-reliant and enjoyed the practice of banding together in voluntary associations, a common reality completely different from life in Europe.
Huhn explained how Freemasonry’s teachings fit into Tocqueville’s observations, particularly the ways lodges of that period served as workshops in democratic practices.
The ALR’s next meeting will be Monday, June 30 at 7 p.m. inside the French Doric Room of Masonic Hall in Manhattan for our annual elections and installation of officers. Before then, though, we’ll get together for a festive board to commemorate a significant event in New York Masonic history. Details to come.
Speaking of the Grand Orient (see post below), France’s 21st annual Museums Night will include the Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie, located inside the GOF’s headquarters. That’s Saturday, May 17. If you’re in town, the address is 16 rue Cadet 75009 Paris 9.
Throughout Paris and beyond, Museums Night is an occasion of free admission to enjoy the exhibits, events, and other programs in all kinds of museums. From Sortir à Paris:
Sortir à Paris
Nuit des Musées 2025 is back for a 21st edition full of surprises, in Paris and across Europe. Art lovers can’t wait to take advantage of this exceptional free night-time event, during which museums invite us to enjoy different activities every year. New installations, prestigious guest artists, as well as guided tours, evening strolls, concerts, shows, and children’s activities bring the museums to life for an evening, or perhaps a night.
The Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie is taking part in the 21st Nuit des Musées on Saturday, May 17, giving you the chance to discover the influence of Freemasonry on the evolution of society! Are you ready for this cultural nocturne?
For Museums Night, we’re off to discover the Museum of Freemasonry, which is opening its doors to us free of charge. This unusual museum lifts the veil on the intriguing history of this organization, initiated in 1778 by Benjamin Franklin. Thousands of documents testify to the role played by lodges in the history of the Republic, particularly in the choice of its values: tolerance, secularism and solidarity.
More than two centuries of history are presented in 400 square meters. Ritual decorations and objects belonging to lodges and Masons are on display, as are seals, jewels, medals, manuscripts, engravings, and architectural books. Numerous photographs shed light on the daily lives of Freemasons.
Sortir à Paris
The date is set for this 21st edition of the Nuit des Musées, you can enjoy a nocturnal tour of the museum, discovering the Masonic temples. It’s also an opportunity to discover this unusual museum from a different angle, at night, to leave the mystery even deeper. Discover the program in detail!
Don’t ask me about that Benjamin Franklin part. Maybe that’s a question for your tour guide.
Say what you will about France’s nazi collaborators, but they really made an effort to slander Freemasonry in the movies.
Director Jean Mamy (employing the nom de guerre Paul Riche) was executed by firing squad on this date in 1949 at age 46 for his pro-nazi labors. His final directorial work in a pretty short film career is the 53-minute Forces Occultes from 1943, a story of a French politician in the Chamber of Deputies of the Third Republic. M. Pierre Avenel (Maurice Rémy) is a young idealist who identifies with the ethics professed by the Grand Orient of France and allows himself to be steered into the membership of a lodge, ignoring the warnings of his wife (Gisèle Parry) who says Masonry is only for mediocrities and social climbers. (It is said Mamy had been a Mason in a Grand Orient lodge during the thirties.)
The hero of the film is the naive and sincere deputy Avenel, who made the mistake of accepting the Freemasons’ invitation to join them. When he discovers that the Freemasons were involved in all the misfortunes that France experienced in the pre-war period—the Popular Front, the Stavisky scandal, in association with the Jews or with Anglo-Saxon finance—he decides to break the oath that requires him to keep the secrets of the order under penalty of a terrible death and to denounce the criminal actions. His “brothers” then decide to eliminate him. He miraculously survives this assassination attempt, but when he wakes up in his hospital bed, it is too late; the anti-France conspirators have plunged the country into the tragedy of war against Germany, despite the unpreparedness of the French armies.
Naturally, I’ve never visited a Grand Orient lodge and cannot speak to how its rituals work, but I am familiar with French Rite EA° work, thanks to several lodges in our Tenth Manhattan District, and can say what is depicted in this film is very similar to what I’ve seen in l’Union Française and Garibaldi lodges. Regalia, chamber of reflection, circumambulation, and more are spot on, in my estimation. It’s not in tribute, of course; this is nazi propaganda to discredit the fraternity and its ideals Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité—also the motto of France itself.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. See the film here:
You have until May 31 to submit your work for consideration in the 2025 Arcana Veritas Distinction Awards. The Grand Lodge of Scotland’s exaltation of scholarship will culminate at the November 26 award ceremony at Freemasons’ Hall in Edinburgh.
Work is solicited for the three categories: Masonic History Book, Masonic Philosophy and Symbolism Book, and Masonic White Papers.
Entry rules are here. Judging methodology here. Submit your work electronically here.
The Grand Lodge willed AVDA into existence at its Annual Communication in November 2023, so don’t feel inadequate if you hadn’t heard of this previously. The first honorees, from last November, are obscure scribes David Harrison (History Book), Antony Richard Baker (Philosophy and Symbolism Book), and Stewart Clelland (White Papers).
Grand Lodge of Scotland
No, I’m not going to try for this! I’m a few deep levels south of this caliber. Brethren who didn’t win last year include Ric Berman (his Prestonian Lecture!), Christopher Earnshaw, and Julian Rees. Don’t let that deter you though. Contest judges are yet to be named, but I’m confident they’ll be noble and petrifying.
This bronze of George Washington was erected in 1882 near where he was sworn in.
New York Freemasonry commemorates the momentous day when Brother George Washington was sworn in as the first President of the United States in 1789, bringing to life the unprecedented federal office of an elected Chief Executive as established by the U.S. Constitution two years earlier.
With his hands upon the altar bible of St. John’s Lodge, brought to City Hall for the inauguration by Bro. Jacob Morton, Master of the Lodge, Bro. Washington was sworn by Bro. Robert R. Livingston, Chancellor of New York and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge. After taking the oath of office, Washington bowed, kissed the holy book, and, initiating a tradition followed by many of his successors into the twenty-first century, appended to that oath a phrase known to all Freemasons: “So help me God.”
The famous Bible. Washington placed his hands on Genesis 49-50.
The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York recreates this civil ceremony each year. While the first City Hall is long gone, today’s Federal Hall stands on that site, and we invite everyone to experience this historically correct re-enactment of forty-five minutes.
The Grand Lodge of New York sponsors this commemoration through its George Washington Inaugural Reenactment Committee, under the chairmanship of R.W. Teodulo Henriquez, R.W. Martin Kanter, and R.W. J. Scott Nagel.
The Most Worshipful Steven Adam Rubin, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, with a retinue of Grand Lodge Officers, will be in attendance. The Color Guard will be provided by Sons of the Revolution of New York and The Knickerbocker Greys.
Masonic Lodges, individual Masons, families, and friends are invited to our hospitality room for refreshments afterward. Please make reservations by writing R.W. Nagel here.
Detail from a Currier & Ives piece.
Read more about that day that changed the world, and that rhetorical flourish added to the oath of office, here.
The Reading Room, the live video facet of Craftsmen Online’s suite of content, will open April 30 to examine one of the Rosicrucian Manifestos. Illustrious Jake will lead the discussion of the Fama Fraternitatis.
The reading material is here and spans pages 1-15.
What is the Fama? Printed in Germany in 1614, Fama Fraternitatis is the first of what would be three founding documents of the Rosicrucian movement. I regard that school of thought as “classical Rosicrucianism,” thanks to the galaxy of self-described Rosicrucian movements that materialized during the past 150 or so years. Of Christopher McIntosh’s fairly recent English translation of the Fama, his publisher says:
“The seminal document known as the Fama Fraternitatis (the Proclamation of the Fraternity) burst like a firework over Europe in the early seventeenth century, igniting the imagination of many with its story of the German seeker Christian Rosenkreuz, his journey through the Middle East in search of wisdom, and his creation of the esoteric Rosicrucian Fraternity.”
What is that fraternity? Primarily, a brotherhood to cure the sick, as in following the example set by Jesus of Nazareth, for the dawn of a new age.
Usually, I am chagrined when a Masonic book club delves into material outside the fraternity—as though there isn’t enough literature on Freemasonry—but I know Cliff will lead an enlightening discussion of this text. Join in here on Wednesday, April 30 at 7 p.m.
It’s National Cocktail Day here in the United States. I thought I’d suggest several libations for your celebrations.
The Masonic Temple
Specialty at The Pitcher Inn, in the Town of Warren, Vermont.
Recipe
1 1/2 ounce Bombay Dry Gin
3/4 oz. Cointreau
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
fresh grapefruit juice
Fill Old Fashioned glass with ice, combine first four ingredients, top off with grapefruit juice. Shake in a cocktail shaker until metal begins to frost. Coat rim with sugar, pour in cocktail, and garnish with a lime.
Chandeleur Island Brewing Company. (Not a cocktail, obviously, but one cannot subsist on mixed drinks alone.)
The following are from the 1947 edition of Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide—my most recent copy from when drinking was a cultural pursuit. Some of their ingredients are unfamiliar, so do the best you can!
Balloting will close at the end of the month in Grand Lodge’s tartan design contest. Submitted for your approval are fifteen patterns, the most popular of which will become our official plaid for crafting into kilts and maybe—I dunno—neckwear, flat caps, scarves, and the like. Also will be registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans!
My personal preferences in plaid favor the subdued colors, but I’m not going to lie to you: a lot of those things look the same to me.
Voting is open only to New York Masons, and ballot integrity is protected. Click here.
Virginia-based Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will travel outside the Commonwealth for its meeting next month to mark the start of the U.S. Civil War where the shooting started. From Worshipful Master Creig Lee Lovelace:
We will convene our meeting in historic Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, where the War Between the States began 164 years ago on that very date in that very place. I hope you can make it down.
Many of you requested we ‘get out of Virginia,’ and I told you we indeed would stretch our legs a little. We will head to Tennessee this summer and in the fall we’ll head back to Richmond, Virginia. But on April 11, we will tour the Hunley museum and see the Confederacy’s secret weapon
that authorities hoped would break the blockade. After two failed tests, Gen. Beauregard was ready to shelve the thing as it was more dangerous than the enemy. After some arm twisting by Lt. George Dixon (a Brother from Alabama), Beauregard agreed to one more chance. The attack on February 17, 1864 made history, and yet the Hunley was lost again until 1995. In 2000, it was raised and the final crew was buried in 2004. Come see the technological marvel that was the Hunley.
Saturday we will meet at Solomon’s Lodge 1. Come see an amazing complex, the Charleston County Masonic Association Center, and see the history of the various lodges. Afterward, we will see Fort Sumter and Fort Johnson. Come see where the war began.
“Finally, Brethren, be ye all of one mind; live in peace, and may the God of love and peace delight to dwell with and bless you!”
The Harris Charge, delivered at the close of the lodge
Congratulations to Columbia Lodge 1190 on hosting this morning’s enlightening and energizing Zoom meeting for a discussion of the meaning of “egregore.” Worshipful Master Les Joynes welcomed RW Bro. Christophe Lobry-Boulanger, Grand Sword Bearer of our Grand Lodge and a Past Master of France La Clémente Amitié Cosmopolite Lodge 410 in the Tenth Manhattan District, who discussed “Unveiling the Egregore: Exploring the Collective Consciousness in Freemasonry.” Columbia 1190 meets on Saturdays, so the timing of these monthly sessions isn’t odd.
This term “egregore” Christophe described is “a mostly Western European concept.” And, yes, I hear it seldomly in our Anglo-American Masonic tradition. When it is employed, it’s not used effectively—is meant synonymously with ambiance or character of a lodge. I think to the minds of most Masons here, egregore is a term that rightly belongs to other paths, such as Theosophy and Martinism, and yet we speak of it incessantly, albeit indirectly, in our lodges. What makes you a Mason? Your obligations. The oaths are what you promise the GAOTU, but those obligations are vows to your brethren.
Christophe Lobry-Boulanger
Christophe led us to a deeper meaning. Egregore has a “mystic sense,” he explained, because it is a non-physical entity, a “group mind” as like Rousseau’s political thought of the “general will” or “collective will” among people. (My ears perked up when he spoke of ways to achieve it, saying education is a “binding and bonding element.”)
Egregore is a French word, but it originates in the Greek egrḗgoros, meaning to be awake or to be a watcher. Christophe referred us to the Book of Enoch for further understanding, but I leave that to you.
The point is, the Masonic egregore is born in our shared virtue and morality. When he says “wear your apron on the inside,” he means the ritual garment we wear outside the suit jacket is just a symbol, and that it should point to what’s in your heart. When we all are of one mind that way, we have the Masonic egregore.
The brethren’s comments at the end of the 75-minute meeting were fitting and stimulating. If your lodge isn’t having conversations like this, speak up. Do something. Even reach out to brethren from other lodges, if necessary, who can discuss the meaning of Masonry.
If you like Garibaldi Lodge’s EA°—that French Rite First Degree rendered in Italian—then you’ll love the original as conferred by l’Union Française Lodge 17, in French, and in the far more intimate setting of the French Doric Room. So be there at six o’clock Tuesday evening.
No one will be admitted once the degree begins at 6:45. Be prepared to work your way into a tiled Masonic lodge room.
The ritual often is said to be Scottish Rite, and while it is similar to the A&ASR First Degree, it in fact is older than that—for example having been worked by this lodge since 1797. It features the alchemical and Rosicrucian symbolism that sets it apart from the Preston-Webb-Cross work known to the rest of us in New York.
The only question I have is will the Empire State Building be lit in the blue, white, and red of France’s Tricolour? We’ll see.
The Worshipful Master is V∴W∴ Bro. Ziad, who you also might know as our Tiler in The American Lodge of Research. My cable tow will not allow me to be present, but you should go!
Ionic Lodge 31 in Delaware will host its Railroad Degree this spring. The brethren ride the Wilmington & Western Railroad to a secluded area in the Brandywine Valley woods along Red Clay Creek for a Master Mason Degree. A great way to enjoy a Saturday. This time it’ll be May 3.
Still just $40 per person, but these always sell out, so don’t procrastinate. A succulent lunch will be served. Dress casual because you’ll be in the woods. Bring a folding chair.
Click here for tickets. Click here for a look at the 2022 degree.
Today was one of those four Saturdays per year when I have a research lodge meeting in the a.m. and an AMD meeting in the p.m. Both are far from home, but I can make it work because they are in some proximity to each other, although it does make for a long day.
At New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, we had a full agenda planned, but had to keep our poor Worshipful Master’s much anticipated paper on ice until June because we ran out of time. Much of the meeting was devoted to business, which sounds lame, but it was important stuff, so I’ll call it strategic planning. Among the key items were the lodge’s support of the John Skene Masonic Conference in August and a 2026 event that—if it comes together—will unite three grand jurisdictions in an exploration of early U.S. history during the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration.
The one presentation from the lectern for which we did have time was Senior Deacon Glenn’s review of his recent visit to Rosslyn Chapel. He snapped plenty of photos there and augmented his visual delivery with information from authors who have delved into the enchanting site’s past. (I’m afraid my own belief in a Masonic connection to Rosslyn is more like Bro. Lightfoote’s. IYKYK.)
Bro. Glenn shows us Rosslyn Chapel.
David, our new Treasurer, pulled double duty as our Organist. LORE hasn’t heard an Organist during a meeting since the late Tom Thornton was around—but I don’t recall Tom playing Pachelbel!
Do not adjust your monitor. That’s the matzoh ball in Bro. David’s soup!
The lodge has been searching for a post-meeting luncheon spot, and I think we found a winner at a local restaurant. Everyone seemed pretty happy there, and conversation was varied and lasted into the mid afternoon.
Then I had time to kill. Sometimes I am able to go to the movies before the AMD meeting, but it’s hard to find a movie made for adults who prefer coherent stories and human actors. I took a nap in the promising pre-spring sun, having forgotten to bring a pipe and pouch.
Then it was time for J. William Gronning Council 83 of Allied Masonic Degrees. I arrived a little early and got settled; skipped supper thanks to the lunch; and enjoyed the program for the evening: the Ark and Dove Degree. Expertly conferred! Not one ritualist needed a prompt through the whole thing!
A long day. Bedways is rightways now. Time for some spatchka.
I have it on good authority (Grand Registrar Rick told me) that the editions of Collectanea we’ve been waiting for are coming soon.
The other day, I was figuring out if I still owed 2025 dues to anyone, and found I hadn’t yet paid the Grand College of Rites. I then realized I don’t recall reading the 2024 Collectanea, so I checked my Collectanea bookshelf, and spotted the displeasing cavity where last year’s book would be. (There’s a row of the books, an amusing bookend, then a gilded framed 8x10 photo of Reese.) Then I noticed the 2023 was absent!—making Volume 25, Part 1 on the Bristol Degrees from 2022 the GCR’s most recent publication. But R.I. Patton assures me both the 2023 and 2024 are coming soon.
What is the Grand College of Rites? Click here. Join here.
Hillsdale College offers a 14-part Introduction to Western Philosophy free of charge. This isn’t anything new, but click here if you’re interested. From the publicity:
Explore the great ideas and philosophers of the West.
Philosophy—a word that means “love of wisdom”—teaches us to move beyond the prevailing opinions of our age and gain a deeper understanding of reality.
A good education in philosophy provides the joy of answering fundamental questions that give meaning and direction to our lives. It also serves as a bulwark against ideas that are destructive to human life and freedom.
“Introduction to Western Philosophy” is a 14-lecture online course that invites you to explore the works of the most important philosophers of the West, including Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, and Nietzsche, as they wrestle with the fundamental questions that all human beings are called to answer.
Enrollment in this course gives you free access to lectures by Professor of Philosophy Nathan Schlueter, lecture study guides, readings, and quizzes to aid you in the examination of Western philosophy from its birth in ancient Greece through C.S. Lewis’s efforts to combat the postmodern rejection of reason and truth.
Enroll in this free online course from Hillsdale College and begin the pursuit of knowledge about human nature and the best way of life today!
Taught by:
Larry P. Arnn, President of Hillsdale College, Professor of History and Politics
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If you are unfamiliar with Hillsdale, it is one of the very few independent liberal arts colleges in America—independent as in not accepting any money from any layer of government. In its own words:
Hillsdale College was founded in 1844 with a mission to provide “all who wish to learn” the education necessary to preserve the civil and religious liberties of America. The founders of Hillsdale College understood, like the founders of our great nation, that free government requires independent, virtuous, and knowledgeable citizens.
In 2011 Hillsdale launched its online courses program to extend this mission and to teach the core subjects of a Hillsdale education free of charge. Since that time, more than 4.2 million Americans have partnered with us in this effort.
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