‘Three Distinct Raps’

     

I hearby promise and swear, etc., etc., that the Grand College of Rites is not asking me to promote its latest edition of Collectanea. It’s just that this volume of Cerneau Scottish Rite rituals keeps coming to mind, so here is the third Magpie post in two weeks inspired by book.

This time, it is the action in the Twenty-Seventh Degree, “Sovereign Commander of the Temple,” I recollect thanks to current events.

Judaism’s holiest day begins tomorrow night. Yom Kippur is a day for fasting and atonement. (Please don’t wish your Jewish friends a “Happy Yom Kippur.” It’s not a celebratory holiday.) The atonement aspect, as I understand it, isn’t merely making apologies as needed to wipe clean a slate for the year only to repeat the same kinds of infractions during the coming twelve months, but instead the goal is to advance spiritually, morally, and psychologically so you wouldn’t replicate those same errors. Simple, right?

So what has this to do with a neo-templar degree of the Cerneau Scottish Rite from 1807? Well, there’s this:

In “Sovereign Commander of the Temple,” a Prince of Mercy from the preceding degree is received into a small, entirely blackened room. His conductor, an officer titled Draper, seats the Prince at a small black table that holds certain ritual elements. The Draper instructs the aspirant to use paper and pen to answer these questions:

Have you done any wrong or injury to anyone without atoning for it by repentance, and, if possible, by making amends?

If you have done wrong or injury to anyone, without making amends, and it has not now become impossible to do so, write to the party a letter, confessing the wrong, and promising to make amends, or doing so, if it can be done, by letter. If you have atonement to make to more than one, answer whether what you thus do in one case you will do at the earliest opportunity in all. Seal, if you choose, your letter, since we do not demand to know its contents, but answer briefly hereunder, what you do and promise.

Have you any enmity towards, or feud with, anyone, that you would not readily abandon if you found him sincerely willing to be reconciled to you?

If you have any quarrel with a Mason of any degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, write to him now a letter offering reconciliation and the right hand of fellowship. Seal your letter, and answer what you have done, and, if you have more than one such quarrel, whether you will do the same in every such case.

The action continues. When finished, the Prince shall signal with “three distinct raps upon the table.” The answers (but not the confidential letters, if any) are read aloud in the Chapter by the Chancellor. But, if there are no admitted wrongdoings; if there is no professed intentions to atone; and if making amends is not desired, then the Draper will release him to depart in peace, without advancing in the degree.

     

‘The most acceptable prayer’

     

“…to work well in our appointed sphere is the most acceptable prayer that man can offer….”

Twenty-Second Degree

Cerneau Scottish Rite

1807

It is Labor Day today here in the United States, a national holiday that has Masonic overtones. And, here on the East Coast, we are several hours from sundown, which will bring the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year celebration.

This new edition of Collectanea from the Grand College of Rites, containing degrees 19-29 of the Cerneau Scottish Rite circa 1807, is speaking to me again.

The Twenty-Second Degree, titled “Knight of the Royal Axe, or Prince of Libanus,” sees the admission of a Noahchite, from the previous degree, into the College of these knights. The working tools here are the saw (patience and perseverance), the plane (“cuts down inequalities”), and, of course, the axe (“agent of civilization and improvement”).

In championing virtuous labor over decadent idleness, the Master of Ceremonies renders a historical lecture to the aspirant for the degree. (I won’t edit the spelling or other errors you’ll catch.)

The Tsidunians or Phoenicians were ever ready to aid the Israelites in their holy enterprises. The tie between them was the mysteries, into which the principle persons of both nations were initiated, Moses having necessarily received them while in Egypt, before he could marry the daughter of a priest of On. These mysteries, modified by Solomon, or perhaps at an earlier day by Joshua, or even Moses, to suit the genius and manners of the Jewish people, became Masonry, such as was practiced at the building of the Temple, and such as has in part come down to us. Khurum, King of Tsur in Phoenicia, and Khurum Abai, also a Phoenician and not a Jew, were likewise initiates; and hence the intimate connection between them and Solomon, as Masons. The people of Tsidun, a city of Phoenicia, were employed by Noah to cut cedars on Mount Libanus, of which to build the Ark, under the superintendence of Japhet. His descendants re-peopled Tsidun and Phoenicia, and procured and furnished the cedar from Lebanon to build the Ark of the Covenant; and at a later day his posterity, under Adon Khurum, cut in the same forests cedars for King Solomon; and, at a time still later, they felled timber on the same mountains to construct the Second Temple.

It continues, but that is the section that comes to mind today. Rosh Hashanah commemorates the Creation of the world. Labor Day was instituted to honor the human progress possible only through honest work.

A good and sweet New Year, to all who celebrate, and best wishes for a day of rest to those who still work.

     

‘Let the Light of Heroism blaze’

    

The latest Collectanea, the annual book of transactions of the Grand College of Rites, admits us to the Cerneau Scottish Rite circa 1807 to “see” degrees 19 through 29.

In the 20th, titled “Grand Master ad Vitam, or Venerable Grand Master,” the candidate illumines the Nine Great Lights of Masonry, the fourth of which inevitably comes to mind upon the human calamity unfolding at Kabul, Afghanistan. Excerpted:

Let the Great Light of Heroism shine in our Lodge. That noble heroism, inspired by which, men die at obscure posts of duty, when none are their witnesses save God. Let there be light.

The Light shines. Let us applaud, my brethren.

My brother, say after me: “So may the Light of Heroism shine in me!”

And then the fifth and sixth:

Let the Great Light of Honor shine in our Lodge. That true Honor, incapable of baseness, treachery, or deceit; that never breaks its word to man or woman; and fears the act far more than the disgrace that follows it. Let there be light….

So may the Light of Honor shine in me.

Let the Great Light of Patriotism shine in our Lodge. Patriotism, willing to sacrifice itself for the common good, even when neither thanks nor honor follow it; that ask not whether what the country’s weal requires will or will not be popular; but does the right without regard to consequences. Let there be light!

So may the Light of Patriotism shine in me.

Of course, all Masonic tenets urgently come to mind as the world descends hourly into deeper darkness, but this piece of ritual really leapt off the top of my head.

     

‘Only 44 days, and counting’

     

GCR membership jewel.

With only 44 shopping days remaining before the annual meeting of the Grand College of Rites of the United States of America, here is a reminder for you to bring two worthy Freemasons into the group, while treating yourself to a new membership jewel to wear with pride for years to come. Go on, wear it to lodge* and get the old hens clucking.

I am prompted here by my receipt of the annual dues notice, which contains some news of the College. “We are going to print,” writes Grand Registrar Gerald Klein, referring to the book for 2016: William H. Peckham’s Cerneau Scottish Rite, Part 2, 10º-13º, which should hit the mail “within the next few weeks.” (Click here for some information on Part 1 of this series.)

Also, the GCR has reprinted several classic volumes of Collectanea: The Hermetic Rite, from 1957; Le Coeur Enflamme (The Fiery Heart), from 1961; The Royal Oriental Order of Sat B’Hai, from 1972; and Fratres Lucis, from 1978. These books are available to members in limited supply.

In addition to the nominal dues, the College asks one simple thing of each of us members: to bring in two additional members. Obtain a petition for membership here, and entreat those brethren you know who “get it” to join this cherished and singular Masonic fraternity that conserves fascinating rituals of orders and rites from years gone by. I’ve been plugging membership in the Grand College of Rites on social media for something like 15 years by now, going back to the early days of Yahoo! Groups. I don’t know if anyone ever listened, but you should.


* The Magpie Mason advises consulting your grand jurisdiction’s constitution and laws concerning the wearing of regalia in lodge. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
     

‘Ron Cappello, 1951-2016’

     
Most Wise: Knight Senior Warden, for what reason is this grave prepared?

Senior Warden: Respect for the dead. Because the body is the dwelling and sanctuary of the soul; because the Grand Architect of the Universe made man in His own image; and because our mortal members are the fit instruments of an immortal mind. The four sides of the grave are indicative of the virtues which should adorn the person of every sublime Mason, and which we thus explain:

Reverence, Truth, Justice, and Purity, and are opposed to the vices of the ruffians [that] would destroy Masonry, namely Ignorance, Falsehood, Envy, and Egotism. The sprig of acacia, or myrtle, is the vivifying life that pervades all nature, and the urn implies the intellectual treasure, or immortal soul, the body of man contains.

Most Wise: What now remains to be done?

Senior Warden: To deposit the remains of our lamented Brother in its final resting place.

Most Wise: Let it be done.


Public Funeral Ceremony, on the 23°, of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Freemasonry (c. 1863), as published by the Grand College of Rites of the USA in the 2004 edition of Collectanea.


Of course 2016 has been vicious toward so many of the entertainers we have enjoyed for many years, but this year also has been rough on a number of prominent Freemasons. My thanks to Bro. David for alerting me to this obituary late last night. From the Journal News of New York:

Ronald V. Cappello, age 65, of Yonkers, died Wednesday, November 30, 2016. Ronald was born April 23, 1951 in Mt. Vernon, New York the son of the late Joseph and Marie (Papaleo) Cappello. Ronald was a graduate of Iona College with a Masters Degree in both science and art. He was a history teacher for the Yonkers Board of Education.

Ronald was a devoted Mason serving as Sovereign Grand Master of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Misraïm [for the United States], a member of Huguenot Lodge No. 46 F&AM for 34 years, he was also a member of the Bethlehem Crusader Knights Templar, the Royal Arch Masons, the Cryptic Masons, the Grand College of Rites of the USA, the Royal Order of Scotland, the Rosicrucian Order and the Knights Templar Order of the Temple. He was Past Grand Master of the Martinist Order of the Temple, and a representative for the Grand Lodge of Western Australia.

He is survived by his beloved wife Mary Lou (Capone) Cappello, his daughters Robin Foti-Nadzam, Victoria Cunningham and Yvonne Foti, his grandchildren Alora Gerace, Kyra Nadzam, and William Vanderlinden. Also surviving are his sisters Susan DeLorenzo and Frances Shikarides, his sister-in-law Marion LaGrotte, and eight nieces and nephews. Ronald was predeceased by his brother A. Charles Cappello.

Friends may call on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at Sinatra Memorial Home, Inc., 601 Yonkers Ave., Yonkers, NY. The funeral will be Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Eugene’s Church, 31 Massitoa Road, Yonkers. Committal will be private.

Published in the Journal News on December 2, 2016.
     

‘Collectanea: Cerneau in print’

     
By now some of you may be tired of me promoting and encouraging membership in the Grand College of Rites, something I’ve been doing here and there in social media and in my travels for about fifteen years, but if you are a thinking Mason, then the GCR merits your attention.

Especially now.

The Grand College of Rites is custodian of a multitude of defunct Masonic rites and orders, conserving their rituals and publishing them for education Masons, like you and me, in its annual edition of Collectanea, edited by Arturo de Hoyos, Grand Archivist extraordinaire. It is about to go to press with its 2015 book William H. Peckham’s Cerneau Scottish Rite, Part 1: 4°-9°.

This will be the first time complete Cerneau rituals will be available in print, says Grand Registrar Gerald Klein in a letter to the membership. Those who were members in good standing for 2015 will receive this volume of Collectanea soon. If you are not a member and will attend Masonic Week next month in Virginia, you may join there. (Don’t quote me, but I believe you’d receive this Cerneau book there and then.) The ideal way to join is simply to click here and download the petition for membership and send it in.

Annual dues cost a mere $15. (In New York City, you can’t even take yourself to the movies for fifteen bucks, so just sign up already.)

So who was William H. Peckham? He was Sovereign Grand Commander of the Cerneau Scottish Rite during the 1880s. Look into some of his correspondence, courtesy of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York, here.

But about the Cerneau book. From the publicity:


Named after Joseph Cerneau (1763-184?), “Cerneauism” was a rival and illegitimate form of Scottish Rite Masonry that challenged the Southern Jurisdiction and Northern Masonic Jurisdiction during most of the 1800s.

Cerneau, a Frenchman and resident of Havana, Cuba, was a jeweler and Secretary of a Pennsylvania lodge, La Temple des Virtus Theogalis. In 1806 he was appointed Inspector of the 25-degree Order of the Royal Secret (Rite of Perfection), with authority to create one new 25° Mason each year in Cuba. In 1807 he moved to New York City. After the Mother Supreme Council in Charleston created the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in 1813, Cerneau’s Consistory put forth a Supreme Council of 33 degrees and claimed territory over the “United States of America, its Territories and Dependencies.” In 1853 it chartered two Blue lodges in New York City, which may have sealed its fate as forever illegitimate.

Despite its many ups and downs, the Cerneau Supreme Council became a strong rival to the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, and in 1867 merged with the NMJ. In 1881, dissatisfied former members of the Cerneau Supreme Council renounced their vows of fealty, withdrew from the NMJ, and reactivated the Supreme Council for the United States of America, its Territories and Dependencies. Eventually the conflict between the Supreme Councils (primarily in the NMJ) spilled over into Blue lodges. The courts ultimately upheld a grand lodge’s right to control what Masonic groups its members could belong to, and only then did “Cerneauism” come to an end.


So I’m looking forward to this edition of Collectanea to see what the hubbub was all about. If I’m not mistaken, to this day those visiting a lodge in Pennsylvania must affirm to the brother tiler that they are not members of the Cerneau Masonry. But to be fair, it must be remembered that Cerneau died in the 1840s, and the more infamous deeds undertaken in his name followed in the ensuing decades.

Cerneau was a jeweler by profession. I would love to see what he crafted for the officers of his Consistory.

The annual meeting of the Grand College of Rites will convene Saturday, February 13 at 8 a.m. amid the Masonic Week events in Arlington, Virginia. Hope to see you there.
     

‘Flashback Friday: Three Extinct Knocks’

     
I had meant for Flashback Friday to be a weekly feature here for telling you about events that I’d neglected to write about in a timely manner, but I haven’t even posted Flashbacks on time. It’s not for a lack of overdue subject matter, believe me. I never even addressed the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry at Alexandria, and that was three years ago and alone merits several thousand words, plus a few dozen photos. I’ll get to it. Eventually.

But today we travel back to Friday, February 8, 2013 when the Grand College of Rites met for its annual meeting at Reston, Virginia. I confess my notes from this occasion are with That Which Was Lost, but the meaningful artifact—my copy of Volume 22, Part 1 of Collectanea, distributed to members in attendance and later mailed to those wherever dispersed over the face of the earth—is handy. I really have been remiss in not telling you earlier about this great service to Masonry.

But first—and bear with me a minute—speaking of ICHF 2011, early in the conference, Professor William D. Moore, then of UNC-Wilmington and now of Boston University, presented “Darius Wilson, Confidence Games, and the Limits of American Fraternal Respectability, 1875-1915.” Excerpted from his abstract:

“This presentation will examine the forty-year career of Darius Wilson, who founded the Royal Arcanum, assumed the title of ‘Grand Master of the Venerable Symbolic Grand Lodge Ancient Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry for the United States of America,’ and claimed to have developed a cure for deafness. Between 1875 and 1915, Wilson was both hailed for providing insurance to poverty-stricken immigrants and decried as a fraud who foisted worthless fraternal, medical, and financial certificates upon a credulous public. A resident of Boston, Massachusetts, Wilson was a member of Rochester, New York’s Yonnondio Lodge No. 163, F&AM, before he was expelled. Subsequently he was repeatedly arrested and tried for improperly selling Masonic degrees.

William D. Moore at ICHF 2011.

“Wilson provides a case study for the exploration of issues of authority, legitimacy, and confidence within the American industrializing economy, and will provide new perspectives for understanding both fraternalism and Progressive cries for governmental regulation at the birth of the twentieth century.”

With that taste of context established, here are some of the salient details and eye-catching curiosities from this volume of Collectanea, titled “Darius Wilson’s Most Worshipful Grand Lodge Ancient and Accepted Scottish Free Masons of the United States of America,” edited by Arturo de Hoyos, Grand Archivist of the Grand College of Rites.

The book opens with several pieces of Masonic legal documents concerning the expulsion from Freemasonry of Darius Wilson, deemed an impostor. It was March 1902 when the charges made against Wilson were sent to Charles W. Mead, Grand Master of New York. Wilson was accused of “clandestinely and unlawfully” assisting in conferring the degrees of Masonry upon one Theodore A Tripp. Wilson answered the charge with a denial, but a finding of facts states that Wilson, acting at his professional office located at 41 West 24th Street in Manhattan (only steps from the previous Masonic Hall, headquarters of the Grand Lodge of New York, which meets there still today, in two buildings constructed approximately a decade later) did serve as a senior deacon in ceremonies that imparted the grips, signs, and words of the degrees of Craft Masonry, allegedly under the auspices of a lodge chartered by the Grand Lodge of Ohio on Friday, December 13, 1901.

Evidence in the case against Wilson included a handbill advertising the availability of the degrees of Masonry, courtesy of “the new Grand Lodge of Ohio,” which stated it was forming Masonic lodges in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in New England. This document runs several hundred words, but I’ll quote the first sentences to show the more things change, the more they stay the same. See if this reminds you of the lunacy seen all over the internet, thanks to self-described, self-initiated, and self-deluded “Masons” who create or lend their names to websites that purport to be lodges, among other shams.

“Would you like to be a Mason? There is no patent right on Masonry, and no man or body of men have exclusive jurisdiction to work any degrees thereof. All Rites of Masonry are equally legitimate and regular.”

In a document offered by Wilson in his defense, the same logic was applied toward the High Degrees of Masonry and even the Shrine, as memberships in something dubbed King Edward Consistory 32° and something else named Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine were offered free of charge to the intrepid men of the new Masonry. “Our Scottish Rite is neither the Northern or Southern Jurisdiction or either of the ‘Cerneau Rite’ Supreme Councils, but it is the genuine Scottish Rite as worked in Scotland, and ours is the only Supreme Council that was ever authorized by Free Masons of Scotland to work the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the United States. If you desire to take the degrees from the 4° to the 32° inclusive, and can come to my New York office during my office hours… I will arrange to have the degrees conferred upon you without any cost to you whatever, after which I can offer you something of perhaps greater interest.”

You get the idea, but I’ll point out the inconsistency of both insisting that “all Rites of Masonry are equally legitimate and regular,” and boasting of having “the genuine Scottish Rite as worked in Scotland.” Of course it is hilarious, especially if you possess a rudimentary knowledge of Scottish Rite, but it also is a “logic” key to today’s fakes, phonies, and frauds.

Courtesy Prof. Moore

In the end, Wilson—who is identified as grand master of this rite by a note within the text of the ritual—was expelled from the Grand Lodge of New York. Collectanea is unambiguous with the facts of Masonic jurisprudence; Professor Moore’s paper was lenient with Wilson.




(I chatted with Moore after his presentation, and it turns out he was a volunteer at the Livingston Library years ago.)

Now, to the ritual.

The language of these EA, FC, and MM degrees is, for the most part, easily recognizable to Masons today. The origins of these degrees are unknown, but there are elements of French work and custom. In fact, the Grand Orient is mentioned several times in the text in ways that suggest a relationship. French Rite ritual had been used in New York City in Grand Lodge of New York lodges for more than a century by this point. Regardless, there are unfamiliar idioms, some quirky, others hugely significant.

The Lodge Opening: The lodge is “well guarded,” not tiled. The Wardens, not Deacons, take up the Word. The Word is changed semi-annually. Visitors remain outside until after the “Family Work” (lodge business) is completed. Business is done on the EA Degree. The lodge is alternately called the “Respectable Lodge” and “Respectable Workshop.”

The lodge is opened, in part, with the members, in unison, giving a sign, a battery, and this, “the mysterious acclamation”: “Houze. Houze. Houze.” Or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” (This “houze,” as best I can guess, is a cousin of “huzzah,” a variation of “hurrah” or “hooray.” Anyone knowing for sure is asked to post a comment below.) In voting, the members raise their right arms, and “noisily” slap their hands on their thighs. To speak, a member first must obtain permission from the Master (imagine that) and, while speaking, make a hand gesture that I take to be a familiar one to Apprentices.

The initiation: An officer named Master Expert attends to visitors, ensuring they can prove themselves. Candidates for initiation are seated in the East, where the Master tends to interrogatories. These questions, perhaps unsurprisingly because we don’t know what, if any, inquiries were made into the characters and standings of prospective members, are not queries meant to elicit biographical information, but are mostly rhetorical questions intended to justify to the candidate the lodge’s existence. For example:

“If Masonry is good, why should not all good Masons rejoice when any profane is made a Mason, no matter whether by one Rite or another?”

And:

“Do you know that the Ancient and Accepted or Scottish Rite Masonry, the kind practiced by us, is the only universal Masonry—that is, the only kind that is practiced in nearly all, if not in all, countries of the world?”

Indeed, this appears to be a French Rite, or often called Scottish Rite, Entered Apprentice Degree, very similar to what the celebrated Garibaldi Lodge No. 542 works in Italian in New York City. There is Brother Terrible. There is “swordplay,” I guess I’ll call it. There are symbolic trials of fortitude and endurance, and sensory stimuli (e.g., a drink of water flavored with quassia). There are philosophical questions posed to the candidate by the Master (e.g., “What is ignorance?” “What is your opinion of fanaticism and superstition?” “What is error?”)

A first journey (widdershins) involves various spatial challenges, and symbolizes life’s passions, conflicts, and obstacles. A second journey (clockwise) is easier deliberately to symbolize “the effect of constancy in following the road of virtue.” A third journey, from West to East, is conducted silently and effortlessly as reward for perseverance.

There are two obligations. The first is rightly called an obligation for the way its bonds the candidate to his new brethren; the second is actually an oath, for the way it binds the candidate to the authority of his new lodge and grand lodge. The language of both is standard Masonic usage, and the penalty of the degree is consistent with what you’d expect.

There is the “triple bise,” as our French brethren might say, although this one includes a plant on the lips. No comment.

The second degree: It is worked in a Lodge of Companions. The degree strikes me as mostly standard European Masonic ritual, except for a few conspicuous allowances for modernity. The Industrial Revolution never impacted the ritual my lodge works, and I bet the same can be said of yours. Here, however, we find a frankly delightful alchemical nod to Bro. James Watt:

“Among men, one of the manifestations of life is the movement of blood, like the movements in a steam engine, which are repetitions of expansions and condensations of steam. In the engine, the actuating force is the fire which changes the water into steam in the boiler. Forced to find an outlet, the steam pushes the piston and excapes by an orifice to be condensed by the cold air, and returned to a reservoir as water, [and] reintroduced into the boiler by a feeding pump. This is perpetual so long as the fire, water, and air are thus utilized.”

And a moment later, some thoughts on natural electricity from the Worshipful Master—and remember this comes from the early years of man-made electricity. Excerpted:

“With electricity, the most intense heat known to man can be produced. Under its devouring influence, the metals volatize in an instant, and stones melt like the snow in a hot fire.”

The Number Five is presented by five symbolic journeys about the lodge, each involving a pair of working tools or Liberal Arts and Sciences. Most are familiar, but there also is the “pinch,” a small crowbar. The five physical senses are discussed as “symbols of our spiritual faculties.” And the letter G? It is “the image of universal intelligence,” as Geometry supports Astronomy, which “has given us the courage to measure the sun, moon and myriad other stars…”

It is worth noting that the Word of the Rose Croix Degree is imparted here, as explanatory of the neophyte’s fourth journey in this degree.

The third degree: A Lodge of Masters, termed the Middle Chamber, receives the Companion seeking advancement in the form of “an augmentation of salary.” You know what he’s getting at. The talk, again, goes philosophical, as the candidate is asked to describe his understandings of “right,” justice, and conscience. Whatever his answers, it is the Worshipful Master who informs the lodge that:

“Right is that which we are permitted to do in accordance with the dictates of our conscience. Each man has the right to assure, protect, and develop his material existence, his intellectual faculties, and his moral qualities…. Justice is the highest of virtues; it makes us respect the rights of others and render to each that which belongs to him. This virtue is then essential to every true Mason…. Conscience is the sense of justice which we have naturally in us in our quality of reasonable beings. It is the cry from the heart of man, the marvelous voice which he hears from the depths of his soul, which tells him that which is just and good, and which saves him from inclination to evil.”

The Wilson ritual’s greatest departure from the work standard in most of America is embodied by “the cooling corpse.” There is no candidate raising in this MM°, but rather the Companion is conducted toward a coffin (occupied by the previously made MM, dubbed the Respectable Master). The trials of our GMHA are consistent with what you know, but with a different tool here, and a different injury there, and the hurried burial of “Hiram Abiff or Adon Hiram” (sic) differs a bit, but in the degree’s spiritual essence we see something highly unusual.

Arturo de Hoyos at the meeting.

The exemplar MM in the coffin is raised to his feet in a way you’ll know. The Worshipful Master exclaims: “Our Master has returned today. He is reborn in the person of [candidate’s name].” Of course, the talk of rebirth catches the eye. The mainstream of Freemasonry does not promise the supernatural, especially in the forms of resurrection or reincarnation. The degree continues, taking another Rose Croix turn with the WM saying “Thus day by day, each hemisphere afflicted by the absence of the father of light, assumes again, when he reappears, its cheerfulness and brilliant dress; thus, the torch of genius and of truth dissipates the shades of ignorance and error.” The Wardens reply: “Let us unite, my Brothers, to celebrate the return of light and truth.” Then follows the obligation (no surprises), and the instruction in the Five Points of Mastership: “hand to hand I greet you as a Brother; foot to foot I will support you in all your laudable undertakings; knee to knee the posture of my daily supplication shall remind me of your wants; breast to breast, your lawful secrets, when entrusted to me as such, I will keep as my own; and hand over back, I will support your character in your absence as in your presence.”

At the end, the Worshipful Master delivers the Allocution, a fairly lengthy and poetic legendary history of Masonry that renders GMHA superior over Solomon, as it is Hiram who is “the personification of humanity working and struggling without ceasing, succumbing sometimes, but always returning stronger, more active and more courageous to continue the march and arrive at the supreme end—eternal truth.”

▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼

Pierre 'Pete' Normand
Grand Chancellor, 2013

At our meeting back on February 8, 2013, a new Grand Chancellor was installed. Pierre “Pete” Normand of Texas is well known about the apartments of the Temple, especially the libraries and reading rooms. He most definitely is an education Mason, perhaps best known for championing the 21st century revival in American Masonry that has become known collectively as the “Traditional Observance” movement. Pete’s lodge, St. Albans No. 1455 in College Station, helped spark that revolution when he co-founded it ... in 1992!

In other news, the College’s Knight Grand Cross was awarded to several greatly surprised brethren. It was fun watching Bill Brunk, Paul Johnson, and Joe Manning be summoned to the East, and a great honor to stand with them and receive the prestigious award. I don’t want to gush, but I’ll say it means a lot.

     

‘Happy anniversary to the GCR’

     

The Grand College of Rites of the United States of America marks its 80^th anniversary today. It’s almost as old as Thurman!

If you have been here before, you know the GCR bears the Magpie Seal of Approval, meaning membership is highly recommended. There is so much to be learned from the rituals and other literature of the defunct bodies now in the care of the GCR that it’s a crime to miss it. And for fifteen bucks a year?!

Click here for the petition.

Click here to read the unpredictable origins of the GCR.

Click here to read about our annual meeting three months ago, and about the publication, Collectanea, for the current year.

     

'Grand College of Rites 2012'

    
Hard to believe it has been two weeks since Masonic Week, but time flies. I think that's why a certain depiction of the hourglass shows the icon of time as having wings. Anyway, before more time slips away and I forget what happened, I'd better get on with the coverage of Masonic Week 2012.

I must begin with the annual meeting of the Grand College of Rites, not only because it's at least a decade-long tradition of mine to extol on-line this interesting little band of brothers, but also because Aaron was dogging me yesterday for pictures. It's the least I can do, so let it never be said I don't do the least I can do.

Collectanea is the annual publication of the Grand College of Rites. It contains rituals, jurisprudence, and other literature of rites that are dormant or otherwise unknown to Masons in America. The new book is out. Volume 21, Part 2 continues the archiving of highly unusual German rituals. (Read about Part 1 here.) Its title is Rituals of the Flaming Star: German Esoteric Bricolage from Der Signatstern and Other Sources.

Grand Archivist Arturo de Hoyos, the researcher, editor, and translator behind each edition of Collectanea, describes this text:

The following Masonic rituals have been translated from a 20th century German typescript formerly in the possession of Frederic Mellinger (1890-1970). Mellinger was a pre-World War I associate of Rudolph Steiner and later a disciple of Aleister Crowley. After the latter's death, Mellinger had extensive contact with Hermann Metzger, the leader of the Ordo Illuminatorum, a Swiss confederation of Masonic, Gnostic, and Rosicrucian orders under Metzger's direction. The rituals are composed as a bricolage of sources, the primary one being Der Signatstern... a 16-volume work published in Berlin, 1803-21 (and in) 1866 in parts, in three editions; its first five volumes contain important documents which are, however, thrown in unordered disorder. These parts contain the posthumous Masonic papers of the Minister von Wollner; it was arranged and verified by Friedrich L. Schroder, whence all belonged and from whence taken.

We lack any certain information on the dating and the authorship of these adaptations from Der Signatstern and other Masonic rituals. It is likely that the texts have been edited by more than one hand and they may have been employed or intended for use in more than one esoteric group. The choice of 'Minerval' and the symbolism of the owl in the Neophyte degree are taken directly from the historic Order of the Illuminati. The references to the 'Mizraim-service' point to the influence of Rudolph Steiner, who had a co-Masonic group by this name....

There are also a multiplicity of references in the texts to the fraternal ventures of the German Masonic bricoleur Theodor Reuss. Among his numerous endeavors, Reuss was co-founder with Leopold Engel of a late 19th century German revival of the Order of the Illuminati, an associate with Steiner in the German Section of the Theosophical Society, an English Freemason and Masonic Rosicrucian, and the founder of the co-Masonic Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). Crowley's claim that 'Reuss was in the habit of initiating people with the merest skeleton rituals boiled down from those of Continental Masonry' is a fair description of the following texts. Although Crowley attempted in 1921 to usurp control of the OTO from Reuss and rewrote a majority of the rituals to fit within his new religion of Thelema, Reuss firmly rejected Crowley's leadership and innovations....

And these rituals in Collectanea themselves? Skeletal rituals of Continental co-Masonry is a good way to put it.

The Minerval Degree is recognizable to those who know Scottish Rite Craft work. It's not synonymous in content because it is a bare bones ritual, but it certainly is congruent in theme and style. I suppose it is called Minerval because the candidate (male or female) aspires specifically to search for Truth (as opposed to enlightenment), so there is the logical fit with the Roman goddess of wisdom. There is a Dark Chamber, as in the Chamber of Reflection, outside the temple (not lodge) itself. I don't want to give away too much, but I cannot resist sharing this one detail: Imparted in a charge from the presiding officer to the candidate, and reiterated in the obligation, is this demand, one that is most foreign to mainstream Anglo-American Masonry.

You will, in fact, be asked to consecrate yourself, and your present and future private, social, civic and state influences and powers, to the service of our Order; to use them only to the advantage of, and never to the detriment of, the Order.

Considering this ritual's origins, it is not hard to understand that those initiated into this order were not your neighborhood plumbers and shoe salesmen. German Masonry of this period was reserved to the titled and influential.

Following is another First Degree, that of Apprentice of the Veritas Mystica Maxima Freemasonic Lodge. And a lodge it is, unlike in the previous ritual. Herein is a Worshipful Master and Wardens, and ritual language that is very similar to what was predominant in England and America at that time. In fact, these sayings are entirely recognizable to your ear today. But overall, this ritual is more akin to Scottish Rite or Continental Masonry in most of its content. Upon the lodge's Opening, all the brethren invoke unmistakable Kabbalist prayer. Where Anglo-American rituals allude to Kabbalah fundamentals (if that indeed is what happens), there is nothing oblique about this ritual's intention, going as far as to employ certain Hebrew terms.

Also odd is how the candidate, while required to divest himself of clothing and be attired in a new way, is allowed to retain any jewelry he/she might have. I suppose this is another accommodation of royal, noble, ecclesiastical, and other titled personages, with their signets of office, seeking admission.

This ritual is not quite skeletal. There is meat on the bone and marrow within. Before the candidate undertakes a ritual journey, the Worshipful Master says to him:

Man is blind from the cradle to the grave, and however fervent may be his ardent desire for the Light of Truth, yet he is unable to find it, whether by his own efforts or with the assistance of friends. We belong to a community that has, from antiquity, devoted itself to this Light, and whosoever joins with us must enter upon the journey to seek this Light. Thrice must you travel from morning until evening and again until evening; and that you may not stumble, a Sister or Brother who has gone this way before you will conduct you.

During the first leg of this journey, the element of water is introduced in a rite of purification. "This is the way to self-awareness," says the Senior Warden. "Man believes he knows himself, but your restriction  demonstrates that you are blind and captive in self-deception."

Then, while traveling south, where the element fire awaits the candidate, the Junior Warden says "This is the way to self-control. The fires of passion blaze around you and threaten your corruption. Whoever emerges unhurt from this fire is near the Light!"

And finally, headed east, the element of air is applied, at which time the Senior Warden says "Hail to the air! This is the way to Truth! Be true to yourself, O Seeker, or you will fall into an abyss from which there is no escape!"

I can only imagine it in the original German.

The journey is not all. Before being brought to light, the candidate takes a certain libation to simulate the bitterness of life. The obligation, taken on the Gospel of Saint John, is free of admonishment of temporal penalty, and instead warns that the soul may "wander aimlessly without peace in space for time immeasurable" should the vow be broken.

It's beautiful material. What follows is an Opening of a Chapter of Rose-Croix, heavily Christian,  and a truncated Knight of the Rose-Croix Degree. The initiate is a Scottish Chief Master and Knight of Saint Andrew, indicating a different sequence of degree progression from what Scottish Rite Masons know, but the AASR Knight of Rose Croix will have no difficulty following this ritual. Where the archangel Raphael is mentioned insufficiently once in the current AASR-NMJ Rose Croix Degree, here he is properly ritualized as the candidate's conductor. I think it is okay to say Raphael is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek Hermes, Roman Mercury, and Egyptian Thoth: messenger of the gods.

And indeed the word of the degree, while the same spelling as our AASR degree's, has an entirely different true meaning that reorients our attention to the element fire, and recalls to our minds the "occult science after the manner of Hermes."

And finally, this edition of Collectanea offers the VIIº of the Grand Council of the Mystic Templar Magus of Light: Companion of the Graal and Theoretical Rosicrucian of the Brothers of Light of the Seven Churches in Asia.

Spoken to the candidate following his obligation:

Beloved Brother of Light! In this degree you cease to be a Mason. Now commences your course and study as an esoteric Rosicrucian. You are a Companion of the Graal, a Magus of Light and now receive the first instructions concerning the true purpose of the Rosicrucian and mystic symbols and hieroglyphics....

In presenting the work to the Fellows assembled, R.I. de Hoyos remarked that in preparing this edition of Collectanea, he received assistance from a brother officer for the first time. I didn't catch who that is, but I take it as a sign that good people are being appointed to the officer line.

▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼

Other highlights of our meeting.

Outgoing Grand Chancellor Martin P. Starr, left, asks Fellows Gary Ford
and Sean Graystone to take a bow, upon receiving the Knight Grand Cross.

M.I. Martin P. Starr, our retiring Grand Chancellor, delivered his allocution, recapping the events and concerns of the past year. Along the way he invited Sean Graystone and Gary Ford to the altar to receive  the Knight Grand Cross. Congratulations brethren!

The GCR is looking to incorporate to attain tax-exempt status as an educational foundation, in part to make it easier to receive bequests.

If I heard correctly, 2011 ended with the GCR having 1,256 Fellows on the rolls. If I may say so myself, I take a little pride in that number, having used a number of Masonic on-line forums over the years (long before this blog and the GCR's website existed) to encourage brethren to seek membership, and to encourage their patience when, in the old days, some time would elapse between initiating contact and receiving a reply. I always say it is the best $15 you can spend in Freemasonry. Collectanea is a treasure every year and, admit it, you want to tell your buddies in lodge that you're a Fellow in the Grand College of Rites.

In finance matters, I think Grand Treasurer Gary Hermann said there is $117,000 in the bank. That is a stunning sum, all things considered. Legend says a cache of GCR literature and records are being held, I think, in California, without an easy way to recover them. I say cut a check and buy those papers back, if in fact their true disposition is known.

Past Grand Chancellor Reese Harrison displays a vintage Grand Chancellor
jewel recently discovered, which will be the model used for all future jewels.

David L. Hargett, Jr. is the new Most Illustrious Grand Chancellor

of the Grand College of Rites of the United States of America.

He is the tenth native of North Carolina to attain the office.

Past Grand Chancellor (2007) Reese Harrison introduced and installed our new M.I. Grand Chancellor, David L. Hargett, Jr., dubbing him "the Indiana Jones of North Carolina Masonry" for his relentless search for knowledge.

R.I. Aaron Shoemaker, Grand Mareschal, takes to the podium to deliver his report

as the GCR's webmaster. He does notice you guys aren't visiting the

website's History and Story of the Innovators pages, so check 'em out.

M.I. Starr greets our Past Grand Chancellors in the East.

Part of the sizable New Jersey contingent at Masonic Week. From left:
Richard, Mohamad, Michael, and John.

This and the entire Masonic Week program will relocate in 2013 to the Hyatt Regency in Reston, Virginia. Hope to see you there.
    

‘Masonic Week 2011: Grand College of Rites’

    
(Many of the photos I shot at Masonic Week are blurry or otherwise unusable. Wanting to travel light, I brought my Panasonic Lumix – a perfectly serviceable camera – instead of the Nikon, which was a mistake for this kind of interior photography. Lesson learned. Won’t happen again.)

It was love at first sight, when I happened upon the Grand College of Rites while surfing the web for odd Rose Croix rituals one day about nine years ago. It seemed to me to be the perfect Masonic fraternity: one overall purpose expressed in one quality publication introduced at its one meeting per year. And I have looked forward to, and have enjoyed those single meetings yearly, and always look forward to Collectanea, the book produced by Arturo de Hoyos and the GCR’s Publications Committee.

The College hosted its 80th Annual Convocation Saturday morning in Alexandria, Virginia during Masonic Week, for the changing of the guard, the unveiling of the new Collectanea, and other necessary business, etc.


M.I. Franklin Boner invests our new
Grand Chancellor, M.I. Martin Starr,
with the jewel of office.

Our new Grand Chancellor is M.I. Martin P. Starr of Chicago, taking over for M.I. Franklin Boner. Among the necrology for the year is the loss of the Grand Seneschal, R.I. Sid Dorris of Tennessee, who passed away last fall. Taking his place in the officer line is R.I. Jeffrey N. Nelson of North Dakota, who is now Grand Mareschal (Grand Marshal).

And [drum roll please] our new Grand Seneschal is [fanfare please] R.I. Aaron Shoemaker of Missouri!

Aaron could not be with us this year, and yet he was with us because his labors for the College are vital.

In other headlines, three Fellows of the College were tapped to receive the Knight Grand Cross: Matthew Gibbon and Scott Schlappi, who staff the registration desk outside the meeting, and M.I. Starr, upon his installation as Grand Chancellor.

The College now has 1,222 members (excluding new members who just joined at the meeting).

Other notable deaths in the past year include two Past Grand Chancellors: William H. Thornley, Jr. (1998) and Frederick H. Lorenson (2003).

But about the new Collectanea: This, the 2010 publication, contains the Craft degrees of the Rite of Strict Observance, plus two high degree rituals from the 18th century. In introducing the text, Grand Archivist Art de Hoyos explained it is similar to that he’d published a few years ago in Heredom, but with some ambiguities and inaccuracies stemming from their translations corrected. Strict Observance, he added, was the rite promoted by Baron von Hund, and it is the ancestor of CBCS and the Swedish Rite. The two high degrees are translations of original French into German and into English here. They have Rosicrucian similarities, said de Hoyos, and these rituals were saved from confiscation by the Nazis during their destruction of Masonic lodges.

These Craft degrees are fascinating for their differences from the Anglo-American work we know so well. Unless I misunderstand, there is a break from Newtonian thought.

Said to the Apprentice:

“There is nothing here that does not present the opportunity for much contemplation. Apply yourself to it. To investigate mysteries is not forbidden to a noble student of wisdom. But do not err by placing too much confidence in your own opinions. The heart of man has its own hidden lacunae, and love of discovery makes one proud, and leads from one error to another. If you share your ideas with your Master, and lend yourself to his instruction, I do not doubt that when you become more familiar with our mysteries, which may still appear rather obscure to you now, you will praise three times that very day when you succeed in rejoicing in the Light.”

Said to the Fellow:

“You still find the doors to the innermost part closed. But I must not forget to mention the seven steps which you were so happy to climb today, and by which we actually brought you nearer to the entrance to the door of our sanctuary. They represent the seven principal virtues of a Freemason: obedience, silence, constancy, brotherly love, charity, courage, and resolution in death.

“These excellent qualities should not be lacking in any true Freemason; they are not mere adornments, but are rather essential parts of a good Brother. Obedience is the basis of all, and resolution in death is the last and most sublime test of our fidelity.

“Let everything, my Brother, that you have learned of our mysteries, be eternally locked away in your heart from all those who are outside. Submit to those who, as honest and true Brethren, offer you a helpful hand. Follow those whom we honor as the Superiors of our Lodges, and in the future they will open to you the inner sanctuary of our secret edifice, since you, my Brother, will explore the most profound sources of our mysteries, and will, as is much as is humanly possible, search and fathom them. If you discover something here and there that is obscure, then recall that the way to perfection is never free of all difficulties, and that wisdom often lays obstacles in the way, in order to keep lesser souls back, and to stimulate virtue.”

Said to the Master:

“You further beheld the body of a murdered victim, who was completely covered with blood. We have maintained this custom since time immemorial, as a sure sign that those who approach us are not condemned by their consciences for evil deeds, that they are pure and innocent, and that we can take them as true and faithful members into our bosom. What has been our reason for this I cannot yet reveal to you. Perhaps your own thoughts will lead you down the track of this mysterious custom....”



Past Grand Chancellor Franklin Boner, center, greets our two new recipients

of the Knight Grand Cross. Fellow Matthew Gibbon and Fellow Scott Schlappi

have been the brave guardians of the registration table for many years.