The breathtaking lunacy of much anti-Masonry in social media generally should be avoided for the sake of one’s health, but the typical “theories” I see prompted me to wonder if our Craft ever is mentioned in the scandalous “Epstein Files.”
I won’t waste your time with the common knowledge of who Jeffrey Epstein was or why his digital data are fodder for politics, law, media, and small talk. Suffice to say his notes, texts, emails, photos, videos, and other files are not only morbidly trendy, but they also speedily united a voyeuristic public in a manner that, in contrast, took the Kennedys many years.
The criminal Epstein was a generous benefactor to academia, particularly Harvard University. I imagine it’s possible he saw a chance of his name one day disgracing a building on The Yard. Fortunately, the only Epstein Library we’ll ever see is the so-named collection of his files as published here by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Among ethicists, there was reluctance to see these documents and images unveiled to the public because the average pitchfork-and-torch-wielding villager cannot grasp how a mere mention of someone’s name is not evidence of any crime. You being mentioned in an email, for example, does not mean you sent this email, received this email, were supposed to see it, or that you have any connection to any of the correspondents.
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, as you know, has been Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England since 1967. His name is mentioned in one February 2020 email that consists of several news articles, one of which, from a 2014 issue of the communist rag Morning Star, concerns allegations of pedophilia among Britain’s political leaders. At the bottom of the story is a non-sequitur about Freemasonry (“a shadowy organization full of men desperate for anonymity and forming a spider’s web of connections and mutual interests”) that suggests the Grand Master should launch an internal investigation to find child abusers.
For the kind of mentally confused X user who diurnally vents about the Freemasons, as alluded to above, this is direct evidence of whatever plot currently percolates in his limbic system. Meanwhile, the Grand Master has no idea what you’re talking about.
Plenty of other mentions of our fraternity in the government’s Epstein Library are redundant mentions in passing. The following benign excerpt appears in six Epstein Files:
Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, who founded osteopathy, was interested in phrenology, hypnotism, spiritism, magic. The reference book 10,000 Famous Freemasons (Vol. 4) outlines his Masonic career in Freemasonry. His writings include such Masonic phrases as “Great architect of the Universe.”
A March 2013 email sent to Epstein conveys an article in a Palestinian Authority periodical that says: “Our history is replete with lies, from lies about the corrupt [Caliph] Harun Al-Rashid, which ignore the sources indicating that he dedicated one year to pilgrimage [to Mecca] and one year to Jihad (i.e., he was a good Muslim), to the lie about Al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 events, which asserted that Muslim terrorists committed it, and that it was not an internal American action by the Freemasons, which was mentioned in the Illuminati game cards ten years before it took place.”
An April 2014 email to Epstein from Terje Rød-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat very much in the news in recent days, consists of a batch of nine news stories from The New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, and others. One, from The Washington Post, mentions how Freemasonry is named in the Hamas charter.
Another email, neither from nor to Epstein, and dating to a month before Epstein’s demise, delivers a variety of articles. Excerpted from one 2003 The News of the World story is:
A top Scottish Freemason, Former Grand Master Lord Burton, has said that Lord Cullen’s inquiry into the Dunblane massacre was a cover-up. Lord Burton says Cullen’s inquiry suppressed crucial information to protect high-profile legal figures. These high-profile legal figures may belong to a secretive ‘Super-Mason’ group called The Speculative Society. Lord Burton said: “I have learned of an apparent connection between prominent members of the legal establishment involved in the inquiry, and the secretive Speculative Society. The society was formed in Edinburgh University through Masonic connections so I accept that there might be a link by that route.”
I’m no lawyer, but I think we’re safe from the Epstein Files.
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