‘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.

     

‘Our established mode of government’

    

“A Vindication

of Masonry”

By Bro. Charles Leslie

Vernon Kilwinning Lodge

Edinburgh

May 15, 1741

Printed in Illustrations of Masonry,

Second Edition,

by William Preston, 1775 

Excerpted: 

Masonry is a progressive science, and is divided into different classes or degrees, under particular restrictions and injunctions of fidelity, for the more regular advancement of its professors in the knowledge of its mysteries. According to the progress we make, we are led to limit or extend our inquiries; and in proportion to our genius and capacity, we attain to a greater or less degree of perfection. This mode of government may sufficiently explain the importance of Masonry, and give us a true idea of its nature and design.

Three classes are generally received under different appellations. The privileges of each are distinct, and particular means are adopted to preserve these privileges to the just and meritorious. Honor and probity are recommendations to the first class, in which the practice of virtue is enforced, and the duties of morality inculcated; while the mind is prepared for social converse, and a regular progress into the principles of knowledge and philosophy. Diligence, assiduity, and application are qualifications for the second class, in which an accurate elucidation of science, both in theory and practice, is given; human reason is cultivated by a due exertion of our rational and intellectual powers and faculties; nice and difficult theories are explained; fresh discoveries are produced, and those already known are beautifully embellished.

The third class is confined to a select few, whom truth and fidelity have distinguished, whom years and experience have improved, and whom merit and abilities have entitled to preferment. With them the ancient landmarks of the Order are preserved; and from them we learn and practice those necessary and instructive lessons which dignify the Art, and qualify its professors to convince the uninstructed of its excellence and utility.

This is our established mode of government when we act in conformity to our rules: hence true friendship is cultivated between different ranks and degrees of men, hospitality is promoted, industry rewarded, ingenuity encouraged, and all unnecessary distinctions are lost in the general good.

     

‘…and the moon governs the night’

Visitors to the Newman Catholic Community Center at Drexel University in Philadelphia are greeted by audacious symbolism. The fresco rendering of the iconic color photograph of earthrise taken from the lunar surface lends context to the most incomprehensible phrase in human vocabulary: ‘In the beginning, God...’ Superimposed upon it all is the Chi-Rho mounted on a cross. The Chi-Rho, one of the oldest symbols denoting Christianity, is a combination of the Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P), the first two letters in the Greek spelling of Christ, meaning ‘king.’

On the 40th anniversary of mankind’s arrival on the moon, thoughts inevitably turn to the significance of the moon in Masonic symbolism. There is much to consider.

“The adoption of the moon in the Masonic system as a symbol is analogous to, but could hardly be derived from, the employment of the same symbol in the ancient religions,” says the 1924 edition of Mackey’s An Encyclopædia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences. “In Egypt, Osiris was the sun, and Isis the moon; in Syria, Adonis was the sun, and Ashtoroth the moon; the Greeks adored her as Diana, and Hecate; in the mysteries of Ceres, while the hierophant or chief priest represented the Creator, and the torch-bearer the sun, the officer nearest the altar represented the moon. In short, moon-worship was as widely disseminated as sun-worship. Masons retain her image in their Rites, because the Lodge is a representation of the universe, where, as the sun rules over the day, the moon presides over the night; as the one regulates the year, so does the other the months, and as the former is the king of the starry hosts of heaven, so is the latter their queen; but both deriving their heat, and light, and power from Him, who as the third and the greatest light, the Master of heaven and earth, controls them both.”

Freemasonry as we know it is a product of the Enlightenment, meaning, in part, it is a philosophical society intended for the improvement of man’s station. Its use of universal symbols leads to great confusion among those who mistake it for anything from a continuation of the ancient mystery religions to a form of neo-paganism, like Wicca. Those who hold these opinions miss the point that above all else it is reason that Masonry aims to inculcate, not nature worship. It is thoughtful inquiry into the essence of nature we are taught to pursue, and not satisfaction with the superficial mindset that accepts Creation on par with the Creator.

“Whoever reflects on the objects that surround him will find abundant reason to admire the works of Nature, and adore the Being who directs such astonishing operations,” writes Bro. Charles Leslie in A Vindication of Masonry, his remarks to Vernon Kilwinning Lodge in Edinburgh on May 15, 1741. “He will be convinced that infinite wisdom could alone design, and infinite power finish such amazing works.”

Revealing what later generations of Masons will know as the Middle Chamber Lecture, Leslie continues:

“Speculative Masonry is so much interwoven with religion as to lay us under the strongest obligations to pay to the Deity that rational homage, which at once constitutes the duty and happiness of mankind. It leads the contemplative to view with reverence and admiration the glorious works of creation, and inspires them with the most exalted ideas of the perfections of the great Creator.”

And on Astronomy:

“Astronomy, though the last, is not the least important science. It is that divine art by which we are taught to read the wisdom, strength and beauty of the almighty Creator in those sacred pages, the celestial hemisphere. Assisted by astronomy, we can observe the motions, measure the distances, comprehend the magnitudes, and calculate the periods and eclipses of the heavenly bodies. By it we learn the use of the globes, the system of the world, and the primary law of nature. While we are employed in the study of this science, we perceive unparalleled instances of wisdom and goodness, and on every hand may trace the glorious Author by His works....

“By employing ourselves in the knowledge of these bodies, we are not only inspired with a due reverence for the Deity, but are also induced to apply with more anxiety and attention to the sciences of astronomy, geography, navigation, &c.”

Above, Mackey mentions Diana, the Roman moon goddess, and counterpart to the Greeks’ Artemis, who earns mention on her own in another, exoteric, section of the Middle Chamber Lecture on the subject of the Orders of Architecture:

“The Ionic is a mean between the more solid and the more delicate orders. Both delicacy and ingenuity are displayed in this pillar, the invention of which is attributed to the Ionians, as the famous Temple of Diana at Ephesus was of this order. It is said to have been formed after the model of a young woman of beautiful shape....”

The divine feminine looms large in other systems of symbols, like the tarot deck and astrology. (The Magpie Mason does not advocate use of tarot cards or astrology for divination, but, for reflection, study and exploration of symbols, tarot and astrology are as valid as any other works in the gallery of esoteric arts. Parallels to Masonic imagery are numerous.)

In tarot’s major arcana there is Card 18, called The Moon, which is thus described by Adele Nozedar in The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Signs and Symbols:

At the lower level of the three layers that comprise this image, is a square-edged lake with a crayfish in it. Above, there are two dogs – or possibly a wolf and a dog – that look up to the Moon, jaws open, possibly howling. To their left and right are the corners of two buildings, both slightly different. One has a roof; the other appears to be open to the sky and is reminiscent of the Tower that was struck by lightning in Card 16. In the sky at the top of the card is the full Moon, with a face that points to the left and with a halo of rays, like moonbeams, surrounding it. There are teardrop shapes surrounding it that seem to either emanate from the Moon or, alternatively, are sucked into it.

The dogs are a reminder of the hounds that accompany the Moon Goddess. Dogs also act as psychopomps, guardians of souls in the spirit world. There is a nightmarish aspect to this card. The surrounding landscape is barren, only two small plants appear in it, a sort of no-man’s land. This card represents the “dark night of the soul.” However, the preceding card (No. 15, The Star) signifies hope, and the Moon provides the light that is reflected from the Sun (Card 19), illuminating the way ahead, indicating that guidance will come from above.

Left: An elegant interpretation of The Moon tarot card, courtesy of All Posters.

Right: Bro. Colin Browne’s version, from his Square and Compasses Tarot Deck, which connects the moon to the Senior Warden in the West.



There is a lot to work with here. The dogs can remind us of hunting, as in Diana, Goddess of the Hunt. The twin towers may speak to certain pillars Masons know well. That crayfish is important for its shell. In other tarot decks and elsewhere in symbolism, creatures with shells (crabs, scarab beetles, etc.) denote self-protection, and even aloofness. The astrological connection, naturally, is to the crab of the Cancer constellation, which Nozedar describes elsewhere in her book as a female symbol that denotes the moon and, interestingly, spans from June 21 to July 22.

On July 20, 1969, astronauts named for the god of the sun landed on and walked on the moon. And Freemasonry was there. Bro. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the second human to walk on the moon, was made a Mason at Montclair Lodge No. 144 in Montclair, New Jersey, which was Aldrin’s hometown. That lodge no longer exists; it is one of the many lodges that amalgamated into what today is Essex Lodge No. 7. But, getting back to the feminine, Aldrin’s mother’s maiden name was... Moon.