‘Pennsylvania Lodge of Research’

     

Pennsylvania Lodge of Research will meet next month in Conshohocken for its Installation of Officers and to hear Moises present a paper. From the publicity:

Pennsylvania Lodge

of Research

Saturday, June 26

10 a.m. to noon

Fritz Lodge 308

RSVP (a must) here

Agenda items to include:

• Installation of Officers, including the Brother Senior Warden, Yasser Al-Khatib, being seated in the Solomonic chair.
• Moises Gomez, the Right Worshipful Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, to present “Freemasonry in Cuba.”
• Lodge business and lunch.

1801 Fayette Street in Conshohocken.

     

‘New Jersey’s Masonic lodges’

      

Lots of great news coming out of the weekend.

Research lodge’s

festive board

First, mark your calendars for Saturday, November 30 for New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786’s Festive Board at Cranbury Inn. That’s the Feast Day of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scottish Freemasonry. Details are still being worked out, but 65 guests are welcome at $40 each, payable in advance. I’ll have more info soon and will post it on the Magpie.

A brother’s book

to be published

A relatively new Master Mason, Bro. Erich Huhn, will have a book published next month. New Jersey’s Masonic Lodges is due out October 28 from Arcadia Publishing. This is one of those 128-page paperbacks filled entirely with archival photographs that Arcadia prints. $21.99, available for preorder. From the publicity:

Across New Jersey, thousands of men have entered through the doors of Masonic Lodge buildings, also known as “temples,” over the fraternity’s more than 250-year history in the Garden State. These buildings, from humble meeting spaces to elaborate single-purpose centers, stand tribute to the memory and influence of one of the oldest fraternities in the world, founded on the tenets of faith, hope, and charity. From governors and U.S. Supreme Court justices, to carpenters and stonemasons, Freemasonry has welcomed men from all walks of life, and the temples they built have played important roles in the civic, social, and charitable life of many towns. Although some lodges have been lost, many still remain and are presented here for the first time through photographs and images collected from various historical societies, museums, libraries, and Masonic organizations. This book attempts not to serve as an encyclopedic source but rather to catalog and organize the development of the Masonic temples in New Jersey.

Erich Morgan Huhn is a historian of Freemasonry and fraternalism and a member of Cincinnati Lodge 3 in Morristown. He has degrees from Rider University and Seton Hall University. His work focuses on demographics and social history, with a concentration on the Freemasons and fraternities of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Adam, Ryan,

and Yasser to speak

I haven’t seen any of these outstanding Masons in years, especially Adam, and it’ll be good to shake their hands again.

Admission is free. This flier says it all. See you there.

Click to enlarge.

     

‘Winners at Jim Thorpe’

     
Pennsylvania Lodge of Research will meet Saturday, December 6 at Jim Thorpe Masonic Hall for presentations of papers and its installation of officers.

The lodge will open at 10 a.m. The Masonic Hall is located at 501 Center Street in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

The papers to be presented are “The Golden Fleece” by Yasser Al-Khatib, and “The Prevalence of Clandestine Masonry in the United States” by Oscar Alleyne.

50 percent rayon!

Lunch will be served. All Master Masons in good standing are welcome to attend.

I think I will attend. I bought this tie a few years ago because it kind of fits the lodge’s regalia, and I haven’t yet had the chance to wear it.
     

'Thank you Abington Chapter'

    
I think it went well Tuesday night. Makia told me attendance was higher than usual. Even Yasser was there! I got a taste of Pennsylvania Royal Arch ritual, which is a bit different from what I'm used to. Then we went out for drinks and a bite to eat. What more could you want?

For a topic, I went with Kabbalah's interpretations of several of the Royal Arch Degree's borrowings from the Book of Exodus, namely the Breastplate of the High Priest, the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark's Cherubim, the Burning Bush, and "the great, mysterious, and sacred name of Deity."

I don't like public speaking. I dread it, and I'm not that good at it despite all the practice I get. And it is especially daunting to break in a brand new lecture. I'll have to smooth this one out, but to give you an idea of the material, here are a few excerpts.

Of the Ark of the Covenant, the Book of Exodus explains the dimensions and other specs for its construction, including: "Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it." This, says the literature of the Zohar, can serve to remind us that we, ourselves, must be of that same essence, both inside and out. That is, our inner selves must be of the same substance we display on our exteriors. More than not behaving one way while secretly feeling differently, the point is to purify our hearts and refine our minds so that our outwardly behavior is determined by that spark of divinity that resides in us all. To be truly "good as gold."

In Exodus Chapter 3, we learn of the identity God chose to reveal to Moses: "I am that I am" (sometimes presented as "I am who I am"). In Judaism, there are seventy-two names of God, and different situations in life require us to know these different names for God, so that in prayer or other labors, we have the correct context for connecting to Him. Perhaps like dialing the correct phone number, but in a spiritual method. For example, in light of what happened to the Israelites after exiting Egypt, the names for Judgment (Gvurah) and Mercy (Chesed) come to mind. Judgment bears the connotation of negativity, but the Zohar informs us that there can be no negativity emanating from the GAOTU, that there only can be the most specific wisdom and understanding of how to treat each person precisely as that person needs at that time. One could say "tough love" is a modern representation of this concept in that to the receiver, it may appear to be the worst of all options, but it actually can be exactly what the person needs.

Exodus 3:13 - Moses said to God, "When I come to the Israelites and say to them 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh." (Variously translated as I Am That I Am, or I Am Who I Am, or I Will Be What I Will Be.) In "I am that I am," we have the very awkward use of the first person as though it is the third person. So, what is God's name? I Am.

I'll spare you the "Who's on First?" jokes, and relate the Zohar commentary, which essentially wants us again to fan that divine spark within each of us, and achieve a communion with deity. In my own crude understanding, if we say the name of God is "I Am" -- that first person usage -- then we want to gain and display supernal qualities autonomously. And, returning to that juxtaposition of Judgment and Mercy, saying "I am" when wondering why God allows bad things to happen directs our attention to our own choices in life, our own management of our capacity for good and our propensity for bad.

Hopefully this renders a clear idea of where my lecture headed Tuesday evening. I make no claim of expertise in these matters. In fact, during the Q&A, I was asked if this kind of material is known to Freemasons generally, or if it is something I connected to Royal Arch ritual myself. I assured the Excellent Scribe that I achieved nothing unprecedented here, but that material such as this, especially Kabbalah, has a particular claim upon the curiosity of Freemasons who seek further Light. I hope the Companions were sufficiently impressed as to start their own searches, in their own good time.
    

‘At Atlas-Pythagoras’

Mark your calendars: On Friday, June 17, W. Bro. George Haynes of Pennsylvania will speak on “Esoteric Freemasonry” at Atlas-Pythagoras Lodge No. 10 in Westfield, New Jersey. A Fellow of The Masonic Society, George is a valued speaker on the Masonic lecture circuit. Other dates of note:

March 18: Franklin Melnick on “Geometry: The Foundation of Freemasonry.”

May 20: Masonic Society Member Yasser Al-Khatib, Past Master, on “The Astral Plane.”

 

‘Into the Oriental Chair’

Congratulations to Bro. Yasser Al-Khatib, who was installed Worshipful Master of Fritz Lodge No. 308 in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania last night.

W. Yasser is shown here at Atlas-Pythagoras Lodge, where he spoke last February on historical, mythological, and ritual aspects of the Golden Fleece.

(I only just now realized The Magpie Mason failed to report on that great evening, probably because of Masonic Week-related excitement. Sorry about that Yasser.)