‘Amazing Academy of Humanities at Jerusalem 26’

    

Click to enlarge.

There is something amazing in New Jersey Freemasonry. Jerusalem Lodge 26 in Plainfield is hosting diverse events connecting the Craft with the Humanities.

Of course, this should be happening in all lodges, but it isn’t, which is why Jerusalem’s Academy of Humanities instruction and enlightenment is so remarkable. Here’s what’s upcoming:

Academy of Humanities recent events included:

➢ The Glory of Geometry

➢ Great Masonic Writers

➢ Accessing the Divine Through Music

And there’s emphasis on music—opera!

➢ The Magic Flute

➢ Die Fledermaus

➢ Hansel and Gretel

➢ Anna Bolena

➢ Don Giovanni

Plus, there are tutorials on sartorial style, manners, and other gentlemanly needs to which today’s man otherwise might not have direct access. Sure, there are all kinds of internet content and books, but these events make the quest for self-development a brotherly journey.

I doubt David Palladino-Sinclair would claim all the due credit for this initiative, but it is his brainchild.

And check out the book club!

Huzzah!

     

‘Sacramento: Freemasonry and the Declaration of Independence’

    

Speaking of conferences in California (see post below), the Scottish Rite bodies of Sacramento, Santa Rosa, and Stockton will host an educational celebration of America’s 250th anniversary this summer. From the publicity:

Freemasonry and the Ideals

of the Declaration of Independence

Saturday, August 8

Sacramento Scottish Rite

Masonic Center

6151 H Street, Sacramento

Click here

Speakers include Dr. Richard “Ric” Berman, Dr. John Cooper, and Dr. Susan Sommers.

Ric Berman researches and speaks on English, Irish, and American Freemasonry, with a focus on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He has written numerous journal articles and some ten books and has given keynote talks worldwide. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Ric holds a master’s degree in economics and a doctorate in history from the University of Cambridge and the University of Exeter, respectively, following which he spent two years post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford.

Ric has been a Freemason for more than forty years and has twice been the United Grand Lodge of England’s Prestonian Lecturer. He holds Grand Rank in the UGLE and is a Past Master of three English lodges, including Quatuor Coronati Lodge, the premier lodge of Masonic research, and chairs the QC Correspondence Circle, the oldest Masonic Research Society in the world. Ric is also an American Freemason, a member or honorary member of lodges in six states, a Fellow of the Philalethes Society and a member of the Society of Blue Friars.

A Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California, John Cooper is the former Master of three California research lodges and a past President of the Philalethes Society–America’s oldest and largest Masonic research organization. He has presented papers at international conferences on the history of Freemasonry, and is a published author. John was a public school teacher and administrator, including a tour of duty as superintendent of a high school district in San Diego County before coming to San Francisco to become Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of California. He served in the latter position for eighteen years and was president of the Conference of Grand Secretaries. In 2013 he was elected as Grand Master of Masons in California and during his term as Grand Master he served as Chairman of the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America.

John has a master’s degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in education from Claremont Graduate University. His main research interests are in the history of ideas, and the interaction of Freemasonry with political society. He is a Thirty-Third Degree Mason in the Scottish Rite, and is a Knight of the York Grand Cross of Honor. He also has held leadership positions in many of the smaller rites and degrees of Freemasonry.

Susan Mitchell Sommers, Professor Emeritus of History, Saint Vincent College, has been calling it like it is since her first year on the history faculty in 1993. At that time, there were few women teaching at Saint Vincent College and Susan brought the hidden lives of everyday people into the light, from small town citizens to Freemasons in esoteric communities. In her teaching she developed what she calls the Oatmeal Theory of History, which showcases the challenges and recognizes the importance of studying history as the stuff that both radically changes lives while those lives also appear to stand still. She explains to students that for thousands of years our ancestors got up every morning, ate a bowl of oatmeal and then went out into the fields to cultivate oats. Then they came home, ate a bowl of oatmeal and went to sleep. For thousands of years. But if we taught about that in history classes everyone would all get up and leave, even though it is the way things actually happened. We speed things up, highlight the changes, make history seem far more exciting than it generally was for the people living it. So, while Susan may talk about the Scientific Revolution or Spanish Civil War as times of sweeping change, she reminds us that most people were still eating oatmeal and growing oats.

Susan has published four books, forty articles, more than a dozen book reviews, and has delivered countless presentations. Her main teaching and research interests are in British and intellectual history, especially of the eighteenth century. Her publications include book-length studies of Freemasonry, esotericism and small-town parliamentary politics. Susan is working on a biography of Rev. James Anderson (1679-1739), a Presbyterian minister from Scotland who was responsible for the first book of Masonic constitutions in 1723. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Logistics and more here.

     

‘Call for Papers: 2027 International Conference on Freemasonry’

    

I see it’s on the Grand Master’s calendar, so it is official: The 15th International Conference on Freemasonry is set for March 6 of next year. Hosted by the Masons of California, it’ll be back in Los Angeles, this time at the UCLA Faculty Club.

The theme for 2027 will be “Scotland and Freemasonry: The High Road, the Low Road, and the Road Less Traveled.” Organizers have issued the call for papers, saying:

“We are now accepting proposals for academic paper presentations for the 15th International Conference on Freemasonry, sponsored by the Grand Lodge of California and the California Masonic Foundation. Topics are open, but should be closely matched to the theme of the conference. Successful proposals will adhere to academic standards of original research and composition, and pursue original analyses. Please send curriculum vitae and 500-word proposal to Susan Mitchell Sommers here.”

Bro. Erich Huhn, who serves as both The ALR’s Senior Deacon and NJ LORE’s Secretary, while pursuing a Ph.D. in History on nineteenth century American Freemasonry, was a speaker at this year’s conference just four weeks ago. Based on his account of the affair, it sounds like a pretty wild weekend! I imagine outside the lecture hall, sherry was tippled, monocles were steamed, laughter was…was audible!

Send in your précis!

Kudos to whoever devised the conference title. “The high road” and “the low road” call to mind the Scottish folk song “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond,” and “the road less traveled” reminds us of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, a California native and son of a Scottish immigrant mother.

And March 6, for that matter, is the Feast Day of St. Baldred, a hermit (therefore dear to my heart) of the eighth century who came to be known as the Apostle of the Lothians.

     

‘Going to Nutley Lodge next month’

    

It’s official: The Magpie Mason will return to Nutley Lodge 25 in New Jersey for a speaking engagement—first time in ten years, as a matter of fact. I guess that’s how long it takes for everyone to forget the reasons not to invite me over and speak.

On Monday, May 4, I will be dining out yet again on my talk: “It’s Just Common Sense: Thomas Reid and the Fellow Craft Degree.” This is an explanation of how a very influential Scottish Enlightenment treatise came to provide part of the Middle Chamber Lecture, with context on what the Second Degree looked like before this lecture was devised, and other admissible evidence.

Lodge tyles at 7:30. 175 Chestnut Street in Nutley, really only a short ride outside of Manhattan.

My own lodge’s meetings coincide with Nutley’s, but not on this date due to the Grand Lodge of New York’s Annual Communication that day.

     

‘A poetic chamber of reflection’

    

Click to enlarge.

RW Bro. Francis Dumaurier, of l’Union Française Lodge 17 in the Tenth Manhattan District, recently launched what he calls his “personal Chamber of Reflection.” Brotherly Rhymes exhibits Francis’ poetry.

“I personally wrote each story in the classic style of three quatrains of alternating alexandrine verses, and I illustrated them with assistance from Google’s Gemini and/or ChatGPT image generators,” he says in an introduction. “A new one will be posted each Thursday afternoon for as long as I can manage to do it.”

Click here.

Click to enlarge.

“These ‘Brotherly Rhymes’ are offered to you free of charge, and I am solely responsible for their contents, which are not sanctioned by any Grand Lodge, any other organized institution, nor any individual person or group of persons living or dead,” he also says. “The illustrations are not photographs of anything or anybody. These images were created with assistance from AI to illustrate each story, and they are works of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events or localities, is purely coincidental. I hope that you will enjoy visiting my personal Chamber of Reflection.”

Click to enlarge.

Francis is Grand Representative of the Grande Loge Nationale Française near the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. Beyond the apartments of the temple, he is the author recently of Giorgio Gomelsky: For Your Love, about the life of his friend (and our Masonic brother), the legendary music impressario. Francis also is an actor. Surely you’ve seen him in Marty Supreme and The Artist; maybe you caught him on SNL, Letterman, or Conan. Busy man!

Click here for his Brotherly Rhymes.

     

‘Let the benign Genius of the Mystic Art preside’

    

Monitor of the Work, Lectures and Ceremonies of Ancient Craft Masonry in the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York is available from Lodge Services or your lodge secretary. (Okay, maybe a graphic designer might have helped a little with the cover but, hey, it’s done.)

Many years in the making, Grand Lodge’s Monitor is published and is available from Lodge Services. Its proper title, Monitor of the Work, Lectures and Ceremonies of Ancient Craft Masonry in the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, the book is copyrighted 2025, but I learned of its existence—again, after anticipation of years—just a week ago through a comment on Faceypage. Got my copy yesterday.

Immediately, I searched for content unknown to me, and no sooner than on Page 7 are Opening Charges.

Opening Charges?

Opening Charges!

You probably know a Closing Charge, delivered at, yes, the close of the lodge communication. I doubt it is ubiquitous throughout the country, but it is found near and far. In New York, we call it the Harris Charge (“…you are now about to quit this sacred retreat of friendship and virtue…”). It is an optional coda to the meeting, although I don’t know why a Master would opt out of it. When it was my privilege to serve in the East twenty-one years ago in New Jersey, that was possibly my favorite piece of Work. It differs slightly from New York’s version.

Who’s Harris?

Bro. Thaddeus Harris

The Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, D.D. (1768-1842) was a Massachusetts Freemason. More than that, he was that Grand Lodge’s first Grand Chaplain. (Synchronously enough, he laid down his working tools on this very date, April 3.) He also served as Corresponding Grand Secretary and, in 1812, was appointed Deputy Grand Master! A remarkable seminal figure in Massachusetts Freemasonry, but he is a topic for another edition of The Magpie Mason. (This portrait of Harris hangs, if I remember right, on the ground floor of the Boston Masonic Building, home of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts.)

Where was I going with this? Yes! These Opening Charges.

They are not new to Freemasonry, but they’re news to me and they are terrific brief orations you’ll be proud to hear at the start of your lodge meetings. There are two, prefaced with this:

Performance of an Opening Charge is optional. One charge or the other, without alteration or combination, may be given in full immediately following the prayer in the Ritual of Opening, or at the commencement of any untiled Masonic event. Only The Monitor or The Chaplain’s Book are to be used if the charge is read in a tiled lodge.

The first Charge:

The ways of science are beautiful. Knowledge is attained by degrees. Wisdom dwells with contemplation. There are we to seek her. Though the passage be difficult, the farther we proceed, the easier it will become. If we are united, our society must flourish. Let all things give place to peace and good fellowship. Uniting in the grand design, let us be happy in ourselves, and endeavor to contribute to the happiness of others. Let us promote the useful arts; and by them mark our superiority and distinction. Let us cultivate the moral virtues; and improve in all that is good and amiable. Let the genius of Masonry preside over our conduct; and under its sovereign sway let us act with becoming dignity. Let our recreations be innocent, and pursued with moderation. Never let us expose our character to derision. Thus shall we act in conformity to our precepts, and support the name we have always borne, of being a respectable, a regular, and a uniform society.

The second Charge:

The ways of Virtue are beautiful. Knowledge is attained by degrees. Wisdom dwells in contemplation: there we must seek her. Let us then, Brethren, apply ourselves with becoming zeal to the practice of the excellent principles inculcated by our Order. Let us ever remember that the great objects of our association are the restraint of improper desires and passions, the cultivation of an active benevolence, and the promotion of a correct knowledge of the duties we owe to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves. Let us be united and practice with assiduity the sacred tenets of our order. Let all private animosities, of any unhappily exist, give place to affection and brotherly love. It is useless parade to talk of the subjection of irregular passions within the walls of the Lodge, if we permit them to triumph in our daily intercourse with each other. Uniting in the grand design, let us be happy ourselves, and endeavor to promote the happiness of others. Let us cultivate the great moral virtues which are laid down on our Masonic Trestleboard, and improve in everything that is good, amiable and useful. Let the benign Genius of the Mystic Art preside over our councils, and under her sway let us act with a dignity becoming the high moral character of our venerable institution.

So, if these stirring words did not flow from RW Harris’ heart and mind, whence came they? I thought some of the phrases sounded familiar, but wasn’t sure if my memory was tricking me, so I asked Sam.

RW Samuel Kinsey, of Mariners 67, is Chairman of the Custodians of the Work, the team that preserves Grand Lodge’s Standard Work and Lectures and that publishes these books we need to learn our rituals and orations. He provided me a snippet of the Custodians’ report to Grand Lodge, which will meet next month:

The antecedents of the Opening Charges may be found in A Vindication of Masonry and its Excellency demonstrated in a Discourse at the Consecration of the Lodge of Vernon Kilwinning, on May 15, 1741 by Charles Leslie. This lengthy discourse was later incorporated into the first edition of William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry, with increasingly revised and reorganized forms of the Vindication continuing to feature in all subsequent editions. In the early decades of the nineteenth century Thaddeus Mason Harris adapted one of Preston’s later versions into the first Opening Charge given above (the shorter of the two). The second Opening Charge originates in Charles Whitlock Moore’s The Masonic Trestle-board, which purported to contain the working from the Baltimore Convention of 1843. This is the Opening Charge that can be found in Monitors with relevancy to our jurisdiction throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. Although the two Opening Charges reference the same source material and evoke a similar sentiment, your committee believes both are beautiful expressions that deserve to be authorized for use.

There’s a lot more marrow in the bone of this edition of The Monitor, the first published since 1989. The Installation of Officers is revised, just in time for our Installation nights. Now I have to see what The Chaplain’s Book is. Never heard of it.

From the 1740s to the 1840s to the second quarter of the twenty-first century, what we, as Free and Accepted Masons, think, say, and do in lodge remains continuous and relevant, no doubt thanks to our own consistency when we “mix again with the world.”

If you are of these households of the faithful, I wish you a Happy Passover or Happy Easter.

     

‘New book: The Dream of a Noachide’

    

A. Terán photo

Grand Master Steven A. Rubin presents RW Thomas Barat his regalia as our Grand Representative near the Grand Lodge of Hungary at Abravanel 1116’s Table Lodge on March 25.

Full Magpie coverage of last night’s unforgettable ALR meeting is forthcoming but, first, some great news about one of our brethren. Bro. Thomas Barat has authored a newly published book!

Egy Noachita Álma is a Hungarian text for the youngest Entered Apprentice as well as for the petitioner seeking admission to the worshipful lodge. The Dream of a Noachide, in English, is available, partially (minus Hungarian Masonic history), online here.

It has been an exciting week for Bro. Tom. Last Wednesday, his lodge, Abravanel 1116, welcomed the Grand Master to its Table Lodge for the traditional apron presentation, as Tom was invested with his regalia as the Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of New York near the Grand Lodge of Hungary. Huzzah!

Tom is in the Masonic blogosphere too. Click here.

And we will bring him to the lectern of The American Lodge of Research one night, and I’ll let you know when that is scheduled.

     

‘AMD Ingatherings in NY & NJ’

    

I’ll close out the Magpie month of March with AMD news. The Allied Masonic Degrees in New York and New Jersey have announced Ingatherings. The graphics below (click to enlarge) have all the info.

      

‘More music on Palm Sunday’

    

Palm Sunday arrives on the 29th, and Bro. Erik Carlson has a musical program planned for the Church of St. Thomas More.

Erik is our organist at Publicity Lodge 1000, and he plays for other lodges in Masonic Hall. He also is the director of music at the church. From the publicity:

You are invited! The ancient Christian text, Stabat Mater (Mary suffering beneath the Cross) will be performed by GRAMMY® musicians under the direction of Bro. Erik Carlson. Musical settings for choir and orchestra by Vivaldi, Palestrina, Rheinberger, and others. A goodwill donation of $20 is requested.

Thomas More is located at 65 East 89th Street, in the Yorkville part of Manhattan. “Sounds” like a great way to spend some time in the city. Nice weather is forecast too.

     

‘Research lodge to visit Shenandoah Valley’

    

On this date—and at this hour—in 1862, a lesser known, but nevertheless consequential, clash raged in the Shenandoah Valley during the U.S. Civil War—so that’s were the research lodge is headed next month.

Civil War Lodge of Research 1865, chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia in 1995, will meet Saturday, April 11. Odd thing: We will open at one location, but close at another. No Mackey Landmark nor Schrödinger theory is a factor.

Mt. Jackson 103

Specifically, we will meet Saturday morning at ten o’clock inside Magnetic Lodge 184’s home in Stanley. I don’t know the meeting agenda, but after it’s tackled we’ll go on refreshment, have lunch there, and then travel a few minutes north to Mount Jackson Lodge 103, in Mount Jackson, to close.

The night before, we will gather for dinner at Southern Kitchen in New Market, but the customary extracurricular activities (visits to historic places, Saturday supper) are not pre-planned this time, which is disappointing, but we’ll think on our feet.

The recommended sites to see include:

➣ Strayer House Museum

➣ New Market Battlefield

➣ Virginia Museum of the Civil War

➣ Bushong Farm and Battlefield

➣ Mount Jackson Museum

➣ Union Church

I doubt I’ll have time for all those, but I’ll see what the brethren prefer and go with them.

The Battle of Kernstown? The lodge trestleboard informs us:

Intelligence Failures

and the Road to Kernstown

Nathaniel P. Banks

By March 1862, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s command in the Valley had dwindled to fewer than 4,000 effective soldiers due to illness and reassignments. Facing a Union force of nearly 20,000 under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, Jackson was forced to retreat forty miles south of Winchester to Mount Jackson. Believing the Confederates were no longer a threat, the U.S. War Department ordered Banks to move most of his command east to support Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign.

James Shields

On March 21, Confederate sympathizers observed Union troops leaving Winchester but failed to notice that Brig. Gen. James Shields’ division remained nearby. This faulty intelligence led Jackson to believe he faced only a small rear guard. Eager to prevent Union reinforcements from reaching McClellan, Jackson marched his exhausted division northward to strike.

The Battle for Pritchard’s Hill

On March 22, a skirmish broke out south of Winchester. During the fight, General Shields was wounded by shrapnel, leaving Col. Nathan Kimball in operational command. Despite Shields’ orders to chase the Confederates, Kimball held the high ground at Pritchard’s Hill.

The main battle began at nine the following morning. Jackson, still operating under the belief that he held the numerical advantage, conducted a brief reconnaissance and decided to attack. In reality, Kimball had roughly 7–9,000 troops available, significantly outnumbering Jackson’s 4,000 men.

 

The Fight for Sandy Ridge

Finding the Union center at Pritchard’s Hill too strong, Jackson moved his infantry and artillery westward toward Sandy Ridge to attempt a flanking maneuver. By 3 p.m., Confederate artillery on the ridge had successfully suppressed the Union guns on the hill.

The tide turned when Union Col. Erastus B. Tyler’s brigade counterattacked. The fighting centered around a shoulder-high stone wall, where Confederate infantry under Brig. Gen. Richard B. Garnett held their ground with desperate tenacity. For more than an hour, the two sides engaged in a blistering musketry duel at close range. By late afternoon, the Confederate line began to buckle. Jackson’s troops were running dangerously low on ammunition, and Kimball had funneled fresh Union reinforcements into the fight. Seeing his flank being turned and his men exhausted, Garnett ordered a retreat near sunset to save his command.

Kernstown Battlefield Association

Kernstown Battlefield will be open today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for tours, etc. to mark the 164th anniversary of the first Battle of Kernstown.

Aftermath and Strategic Impact

The Battle of Kernstown ended after ten hours of combat. The casualties were heavy relative to the size of the forces:

• Confederate: 733 killed, wounded, or captured (22 percent of the force).

• Union: 575 casualties.

Though Jackson lost the battle—his only defeat as an independent commander—he achieved his primary goal. The intensity of the attack convinced Washington that Jackson had a much larger army. Fearing for the safety of the capital, the War Department pulled 20,000 Union troops away from the Peninsula Campaign and sent them back to the Shenandoah Valley. This diversion weakened McClellan’s advance on Richmond and allowed Jackson to begin the series of victories that would make him a legend.

Is there a Masonic link to all this? I guess we’ll find out when a paper is presented in lodge.

Our next meeting will be July 18 at Monterey Pass, Pennsylvania, not far from Gettysburg. On October 10 we’ll be back in Virginia at Fort Monroe.

Get well wishes to Bro. Bennett Hart, our Secretary and our District Deputy Grand Master. I hope we’ll see him there in three weeks.

     

‘Top U.S. diplomat visits Havana Masons’

    

U.S. Embassy Cuba

The United States’ senior diplomat in Cuba visited that nation’s Scottish Rite Supreme Council last week for discussion of possible cooperation in distributing humanitarian aid—and even some Masonic history, according to a March 18 post on the American embassy’s Facebook page.

Chargé d’Affaires Mike Hammer met Sovereign Grand Commander José Ramón Viñas, 33° that day. The social media post simply says:

U.S. Embassy Cuba

Our Chief of Mission Mike Hammer visited the Masonic Supreme Council (33rd) of Cuba and its Sovereign Grand Commander, José Ramón Viñas. They talked about the challenges Cubans face and the support they can provide for the distribution of humanitarian aid. He also learned about the history of Freemasonry in Cuba, and its origins in the United States.

U.S. Embassy Cuba

I see no more open source information on the meeting, nor do I know if Hammer is a Freemason. What I can say is the diplomat has been meeting with religious groups, independent newspapers, and others lately, as if Washington is looking beyond the communist regime for the island country’s future while that failed state forces its people to redefine poverty and misery. They no longer have simple electricity or fuel, prompting protests in the streets as a nationwide catastrophe looms. The United States already delivers humanitarian relief, as does Mexico.

The United States reopened an embassy in Havana in 2015, fifty-four years after full diplomatic relations were terminated following Cuba’s nationalization of billions of dollars of American-owned businesses. Hammer has been in his position since November 2024, serving on a temporary basis. He is a former ambassador to Chile whose personal life has taken him to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, and Venezuela.

Washington’s view of Freemasonry in Cuba may be reflected in this State Department damning 2023 report on human rights abuses, which says: “Officially recognized churches, Freemasons, and several fraternal and professional organizations were permitted to function outside the formal structure of the state or the ruling party.”

Freemasonry in Cuba is hardly free of communist entanglement though. That’s a story I have avoided blogging about because it’s so obvious it would be like writing about the weather. Use your favorite search engine to learn of their grand lodge’s turmoil.

Meanwhile, in more recent days, America’s communist pig-dogs:

New York Post

Click here for the Post’s story yesterday.

     

‘Grand Master cigar announced today’

    

“To know how to smoke is to recover certain forgotten rhythms, to re-establish communication with the self.”

 

Zino Davidoff

You know May 31 is International Enjoy a Cigar Day, and this year you can savor a smoke that celebrates our Grand Master especially. Just today we learned of the release of the Grand Lodge of New York’s official cigar: the Grand Master, made by Baron of HAVANA. From the publicity:

We’re proud to announce that a Brother-owned business, Baron of HAVANA, has created a limited edition custom premium cigar, the Grand Master, with net proceeds to support the Brotherhood Fund.

This cigar-blend honors the Most Worshipful Steven Adam Rubin, Grand Master, and is handcrafted in the Dominican Republic. Presented in imperial blue with gold foil imprint. Only 1,000 individually numbered boxes will be produced. Each pre-sale box will cost $156.95. (Discounts will be applied for bulk purchases.)

Please find all of the details about the cigar and pre-sale here.

Orders can be placed through the Baron of HAVANA website and also will be for sale at the March special Grand Lodge session, our May Grand Lodge session, and other events.

(Grand Lodge F&AM of the State of New York is a trademark licensor only, and is not engaged in the sale of tobacco products. Sold exclusively by Baron of HAVANA.)

Behind The Grand Master cigar stands José “Jochy” Blanco, a legendary tobacco icon whose expertise spans more than four decades. Jochy blends with both intuitive mastery and meticulous precision, understanding how tobaccos from different regions and harvests will develop over time while ensuring every cigar delivers consistent, complex excellence. (Cigar Aficionado magazine’s Master Blender of the Cigar of The Year 2019.)

Aged for at least five years. The Grand Master is not merely a premium cigar. It is a masterpiece exclusively rolled by hand, a tribute to the principles of patience, precision, and excellence that define both the Masonic Craft and the art of fine tobacco. This patient maturation allowed the tobaccos to marry completely, developing a complexity and smoothness that simply cannot be rushed. Time, after all, is the one ingredient that cannot be substituted.

Each box contains ten toros (6x52) which, the website says, are medium bodied. Shipping is to begin this month.

I’m not sure what is meant by five years of aging. That is an inordinate period for aging either bales of leaves or, certainly, a finished product. I hereby willingly suspend disbelief for the sake of having a good time.

Speaking of good times, International Enjoy a Cigar Day was established in 2018 by both Cigar Rights of Europe and Cigar Rights of America, two lobby groups that try to protect cigar enthusiasts from the relentless government encroachments against their harmless hobby.

     

‘Freemasonry and the pursuit of Happiness’

    

National Archives

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

Since the vernal equinox passed a minute ago, I think it’s okay to look to an event coming in late spring. This is far outside my orbit, but Arizona Lodge of Research 1 will host a discussion at its quarterly stated meeting on June 10 that’ll be very timely, with the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary only several weeks afterward.

W. Ted Cross

At this meeting, Past Master Ted Cross will discuss “What the Founders Meant by Happiness: A Journey Through Virtue and Character.”

This will connect with the course, created with the National Constitution Center, he teaches at Arizona State University. This class, available free of charge online, is a “guided exploration of happiness, virtue, and democracy,” says ASU, describing the subject thusly:

ASU

What does it mean to live a virtuous life in a free society? This course invites learners to explore happiness not as the personal pursuit of feeling good but as an idea closely tied to character, civic responsibility, leadership, and participation in a constitutional democracy. At the heart of this is the belief that self-government begins with government of the self.

Through letters, speeches, essays, and stories from the founding era, learners see how key figures in American history understood happiness as the cultivation of virtue and self-mastery, and how they wrestled—often imperfectly—with questions of moral judgment in both public and private life.

By engaging with these historical examples, learners consider how ideas about character, leadership, moral responsibility, and civic duty shaped the American experiment in self-government and continue to resonate in our civic life today.

12 Self-Paced Modules

Each module combines primary source texts, interpretive essays, and guided inquiry reflection to support reflection on how ideas from the past can inform judgment, responsibility, and participation in a constitutional democracy today, including:

► What does it mean to pursue happiness in a society shaped by competing values and interests?

► How should character and virtue shape leadership, citizenship, and public decision-making?

► What responsibilities accompany individual freedom in a democratic society?

► How can virtue formation, historical understanding, and self government strengthen civil dialogue and civic life, rather than deepen polarization?

On the Masonic side, this research lodge in its social media says:

What Did the Founders Mean by Happiness? What did the Founders really mean by the “pursuit of Happiness?” Not comfort, but character, virtue, and purpose.

Explore these ideas in a new free online course from ASU and the National Constitution Center. Then join Dr. Ted Cross on June 10 at the Arizona Research Lodge 1 Quarterly Stated Meeting, where he will speak on the course and its connection to Masonic philosophy and practice.

W. Bro. Cross is a Past Master of the lodge. You might know him from several appearances on the Craftsmen Online podcast. He was RW Michael Arce’s guest last August 4—click here—to talk about “The Science of Happiness and Meaning.”

At ASU in Tempe, Cross is the Assistant Vice President, Principled Innovation, in the Office of University Affairs, where he “centers on advancing ASU’s ninth design aspiration—Practice Principled Innovation. Ted collaborates with university leaders to embed practices that draw on values, character, civic and intellectual assets to drive human flourishing at ASU and beyond.”

This sounds like an amazing program for Arizona Lodge of Research’s June 10 meeting at the century-old Phoenix Masonic Temple. Remember, Masonic research that reflects on specific Masonic people and events of the past also ought to make the meaning of Masonry an animating energy in our lives now.

Check out Bro. Cross’ other Craftsmen Online appearance, from December 15, on “The Masonic Mind” here.