‘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.

    

‘Masonic Week 2010: Grand College of Rites’

     

Grand Chancellor David Dixon Goodwin, at podium, gets a ‘Standing O’ from the officers of the Grand College of Rites at the annual meeting February 13 during Masonic Week in Alexandria, Virginia. (Click on the photo to see everyone.)

On Saturday morning (February 13), it was time for the Grand College of Rites to meet, install officers, pay some bills, and unveil the new edition of Collectanea.

If you are not familiar with the Grand College of Rites, and if you enjoy reading rituals (that you don’t have to memorize!) and like learning genuinely arcane Masonic history, then please do visit our website and pursue membership. Every year, the College publishes one volume containing either the rituals or the jurisprudence or other defining literature of a Masonic body now defunct. This book is titled Collectanea, and represents the hard work of Grand Archivist Arturo de Hoyos, who also is Grand Archivist and Grand Historian of the Supreme Council, 33º, A&ASR, Southern Jurisdiction.

The 2009 book (Vol. 20, Part 2), contains the 19º to 45º of the Egyptian Masonic Rite of Memphis.

You didn’t know there were degrees beyond the 33°, did you? Well, keep in mind that Collectanea reveals the secrets of defunct Masonic bodies, and Art de Hoyos and the Publications Committee undoubtedly withhold crucial esoterica to prevent any chance of modern day entrepreneurs, however benevolent and well intentioned they may be, from working these rituals and jumpstarting these orders.

If you love reading, then these books are charming ways to learn of the language used by Masons of generations past, especially if you are from a jurisdiction that has made changes to its rituals over the years. For much of this decade, the GCR has been publishing various versions of Memphis Masonry, and I find in their prayers, odes, charges, and other orations some truly beautiful verbiage, the kind of speech totally outdated today, but highly literate and enjoyable. I mean enjoyable to read; I would not want to be a ritualist responsible for conferring this work.

From the 29°, titled Knight of Time:

Time is a great mystery, the general relation in which all things perceptible stand to each other in regard to their origin, continuance, and dissolution. It is a movable image of eternity, or the interval of the world’s motion, illimitable, yet silently ever rolling and rushing on, like an all-embracing ocean tide, on which we and the universe swim like apparitions, which are, and then are not. The means employed at different periods of the world’s history for reckoning Time, have been both varied and numerous. The constellation of the Great Bear was the first great time-keeper. This constellation was at that time much nearer the North Pole than at present, and was seen to revolve around it, the extremity of its tail, indicating the different seasons, as the hands of the clock now indicate the hours of the day. When it pointed to the East, it was springtime; when it pointed to the South, it was summertime; when it pointed to the West, it was autumn; and when it pointed to the North, it was wintertime. The second great time-keeper was the Moon, which revolves around the earth once every thirty days, twelve of its circuits being equal to one of the Great Bear. The third and last great time-keeper was the Sun, which to our ancient brethren appeared to revolve around the earth thirty times during the circuit of the Moon, and three hundred and sixty times during one circuit of the Great Bear.

From the 34°, titled Knight of the First Property of Nature:

The essential, or first part of Nature, of which the sensible universe is now composed (that is neither mind nor force), is called matter. Of the intimate nature of matter itself, we know nothing, but through its external properties only do we know that it exists. The origin of matter is beyond the domain of human knowledge. It is to us not only unknown, but unknowable. Our faculties are so limited that we cannot imagine nor conceive how matter could be originated. We cannot conceive how it could be created out of nothing – how it could have come into existence in any manner whatever. All we know is the simple fact of existence, and must content ourselves with studying the phenomena of its action, and the evidences of its action in the past, and must infer its properties and forces from its action. Contemplating matter as in existence in a chaotic and perhaps nebulous condition, we can form some imperfect conception of the gradual formation of our earth and solar system, and of some of the changes which the earth, its surface and atmosphere, underwent before it was fitted for the abode of man. As a Masonic symbol, matter vividly illustrates the darkness, confusion, and ignorance of the uninitiated and our final advancement from darkness to the light of Masonic knowledge. It also illustrates the dark change which was believed to take place between our earthly residence and that in the A*****u.

M.I. David Dixon Goodwin delivers his allocution, closing his term in office as Grand Chancellor of the Grand College of Rites, as R.I. Franklin Boner, incoming Grand Chancellor, listens.

The College’s officers for 2010:

M. Ill. Grand Chancellor Franklin C. Boner
R. Ill. Senior Vice Chancellor Martin P. Starr
R. Ill. Junior Vice Chancellor David L. Hargett, Jr.
R. Ill. Grand Registrar Craig C. Stimpert, KGC
R. Ill. Grand Treasurer and Grand Registrar Emeritus Gary D. Hermann, KGC, PGC
R. Ill. Grand Registrar Emeritus Herbert A. Fisher, KGC, HPGC
R. Ill. Grand High Prelate Pierre G. (Pete) Normand
R. Ill. Grand Archivist Arturo de Hoyos, The Premier KGC, HPGC
R. Ill. Grand Redactor Lawrence N. Jolma, Jr.
R. Ill. Grand Mareschal Lawrence E. Tucker
R. Ill. Grand Seneschal Sid C. Dorris, III

One of the truly great moments of Masonic Week 2010 was this surprise. Fellow Aaron Shoemaker was called to the podium to deliver his annual report as the GCR’s webmaster, but before he could resume his seat, M.I. Goodwin bestowed on him the College’s Knight Grand Cross for his years of outstanding service. Congratulations Aaron!

And after his installation as our new Most Illustrious Grand Chancellor, Franklin Boner, left, received the Knight Grand Cross from his predecessor, David Dixon Goodwin.