‘Meeting the Massachusetts Lodge of Research’

    

Massachusetts Lodge of Research hosted an enriching and enjoyable Zoom meeting this morning. My first experience with the brethren. I took a break from working to finish the long overdue MLMA newsletter to tune in, and am glad I did. RW Bro. Walter Hunt recounted his recent trip to England to research the activities of Henry Price who, as you know, was the Provincial Grand Master in Boston who established St. John’s Lodge and the Provincial Grand Lodge of New England in 1733. W. Frank Kautz asked and answered “What Is Esoteric Freemasonry?”

“I solved the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts problem once and for all,” said Bro. Hunt, the Grand Historian of their Grand Lodge, in conclusion to his presentation. He certainly made a solid case leading up to that. (If you don’t know, there is a “Who Came First?” rivalry between those two grand lodges.)

RW Walter Hunt

The Grand Lodge recently dispatched him to London for three days of examining eighteenth century records archived in the United Grand Lodge of England’s Museum of Freemasonry. This was prompted, in part, by the Grand Master’s reception in London three years ago at the tercentenary celebration of Anderson’s Constitutions. Massachusetts Masons’ self-image is of the third eldest grand lodge (1733) in the world, after England (1717) and Ireland (1725), but before Scotland (1736). The Most Worshipful attending that commemoration expected to be seated accordingly, but instead was—well, I’m not sure he got the Nick Cave treatment, but he wasn’t exactly in the front row either.

Grand Historian Hunt saw rare documents pertaining to Freemasonry in 1700s Massachusetts (and elsewhere), but he also discovered the absence of other papers one would have hoped contained answers to important questions. For example, Masonic correspondence between Massachusetts and England during the 1730s is scant. It seems Henry Price did not send reports to London. (In my reading over the years, I’ve seen this is not uncommon, as provincial grand lodges enjoyed much independence. I think we today might think of them as districts, like we have within our grand lodges, but that wasn’t the reality.) More problematic is there isn’t a record in England of Henry Price being appointed a Provincial Grand Master! (I hope I understood Bro. Hunt on this.)

In Anderson’s Constitutions of 1738.

Nor is he listed in James Anderson’s New Book of Constitutions of 1738. That text, in its section “Deputations Sent Beyond the Sea,” lists several dozen provincial grand masters around the world. That named for New England is Robert Tomlinson, Esq. in 1736.

Regardless, Hunt explained, he’d traced Price’s travel to London, where he paid the three guinea fee for receiving a PGM deputation. And Price executed his duties, signing the papers that established lodges down what we call the East Coast and even into the Caribbean. Speaking of the Pennsylvanians, Price issued a deputation to Benjamin Franklin, making him PGM of that colony.

Meanwhile, as you probably know, the Grand Lodge of England made Daniel Coxe its Provincial Grand Master of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in 1730, making him the first PGM in British North America, but there’s no evidence Coxe did anything with that authority.

So, in that Massachusetts vs. Pennsylvania dispute, Bro. Hunt says if you’re talking about grand lodges, then Massachusetts is first, but if you’re counting only lodges, then Pennsylvania is premier. Sounds to me like a very Solomonic solution.

W. Frank Kautz

In his “What Is Esoteric Freemasonry?” W. Bro. Frank Kautz gradually unfurled his answer to that question. He defines Freemasonry as a “system of morality, veiled in allegory” that imparts an “understanding by which man can transcend ordinary experience to be in harmony with the Great Architect of the Universe.” And the types of Masons he notes: the fun-seekers, the charitably inclined, those continuing a family tradition, and the esoteric Masons studying the meaning of Masonry.

The meaning is communicated in the “‘mysteries’ and ‘wise and serious truths’ hinted at in the lectures,” the symbolism of the working tools, the images placed about the lodge, and in the many books on Freemasonry.

What does esoteric mean? Bro. Kautz says:

Then we come to the Western Esoteric Tradition, a term Kautz attributes to MacGregor Mathers (I wasn’t aware of that), who created Golden Dawn in response to the rise of Eastern-themed movements that were growing in England and Europe.

The Western Esoteric Tradition, he continues, consists of Qabalah (he explained the spelling), Hermeticism, Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism, Paganism, Martinism, and Freemasonry.

The benefits of these are that they give us quests for gaining knowledge; they maintain wisdom from the past; and they help us develop critical thinking. Kautz also noted negative connotations of esotericism, such as suspicion of things that take place only behind closed doors, jealousy over possession of information by only the select, and even simple changes over time in the meanings of words.

In conclusion, W. Kautz defines esoteric Freemasonry:

As always, any errors or omissions discerned in the above are attributable to me, not the speakers.

With a minimum of lodge business (one new member was elected), the entire session took about ninety minutes. At The ALR, we’ve been talking for a long time about hosting online discussions, not only to augment our in person communications, which tend to be far apart, but also to reach our international membership. It’s proving hard to get that organized.

My worry about it concerns drawing too small an audience. I’d hate to invite someone, have him contort his schedule to help us reach members in, for example, Finland (seven hours ahead of New York), only to have about nine Masons present when we go live. There were, I think, twenty-one today, mostly lodge members and other Massachusetts Masons, but others, like me, from outside the Commonwealth. Not bad at all.

Massachusetts Lodge of Research will meet next on Saturday, August 8 at Tahattawan Lodge in Littleton for its Installation of Officers. That is where Senior Warden Stephen Rogg is at labor, so it will be there where he’ll be installed in the Solomonic Chair.

In the meantime, I completed the online form for joining this research lodge. I’ll let you know if they accept me.