‘Our last lunar lodge’

     

Courtesy Steven A. Rubin

Under the Grand Lodge of New York, there have been several lodges named for Revolutionary martyr Joseph Warren; up the Hudson in Rhinebeck, there is at labor Warren Lodge 32–our last “moon lodge.”

Of course human progress has obviated all need for lodges to await the light of the Full Moon to convene, which makes Warren 32 a portal to our past, replete with lantern lighting for the lodge Opening.

As Rhinebeck is a hundred miles from Masonic Hall, I haven’t visited yet. Still, I bet a moon lodge today is not mere quaintness, nor stubbornness, and certainly not an affectation. I have been reading a lot of New York Masonic history lately, to the exclusion of everything else, and it’s surprising how many appealing traditions have been lost to changing times or changing rules. Meeting on or about the night of the Full Moon is a tradition that defies orderly convenience in favor of a thoughtful nod to the spheres in the heavens. (Does your smartphone’s calendar app report the lunar cycles?) To be accurate, Warren meets on the Thursday preceding the Full Moon.

Courtesy Steven A. Rubin

In his very enjoyable newsletter The Craftsman, Grand Treasurer Steven Rubin has been championing Warren Lodge, and he reports today that those of us who do not have the good luck to be at labor there still can support our last moon lodge another way. Warren offers a “Midnight Rider Subscription.” At $32 annually, a Mason receives the lodge newsletter, a handsome certificate, and, of course, a lapel pin that will identify you as a Mason who knows his waxing gibbous from his waning crescent.

Visit Warren’s Faceypage to read more and for contact info.